Cheikh Sarr, the national basketball team head coach has given his assessment of Group B of the FIBA World Cup qualifiers, in which Rwanda was placed along with Cameroon, South Sudan and defending champions Tunisia. The team is currently in Dakar, Senegal, where the action will take place from February 25 to 27. Commenting on the opponents that Rwanda will be facing in Group B, the seasoned Senegalese tactician told Times Sport in an interview, that his focus is on his own team, trying to prepare it in an adequate way for the competition. “We focus on us: to be ready, to master our skills, our strategies – what we are going to do,” he said. Although he noted that it is hard to know which players the opponent teams are going to be bringing to the competition, he said there are at least clues about the teams’ playing style. “Tunisia, they are very poised - they know what they are doing, South Sudan are very aggressive and good shooters, Cameroon are very strong and like to play a physical game,” he said. “We play the games to win, knowing there is no other way to secure a spot in the second round. That is a tough group obviously, composed of the reigning champion (Tunisia), a well improved and talented South Sudan team,” he told this newspaper in an earlier interview. The 16-nation FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 African Qualifiers began with the first round of Groups A and C in November 2021 in Benguela, Angola, and will extend for six Qualifying Windows until February 2023. The teams that finish in the top three places from Groups A, B, C and D, advance to the Second Round of the African Qualifiers, where teams will be divided into Groups E and F. And the teams that finish in the top five places of the African qualifiers will represent Africa at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 to be held in Indonesia, Japan and Philippines. The 15,000-capacity Dakar Arena last hosted a major FIBA tournament when Nigeria won the 2019 FIBA Womens Afrobasket.
