What Rwanda should do to excel at Afrobasket 2021 tourney

The national Basketball team finished in fourth place after winning one game out of three in the last window of the Afrobasket 2021 qualifiers in Tunisia last month. Teams like Nigeria, South Sudan and Mali qualified for the final tournament, slated for August, as the top 3 teams in the group. However, since Rwanda are the hosts, they have an automatic ticket to the final tournament that will take place at the Kigali Arena. Next month, in April, Senegalese national Cheikh Sarr is expected to take over as the head coach of the Rwanda men’s basketball team. Does this development offer any hope of contending for the tournament. Could this be a turning point for the team’s latest unpleasing performance? Times Sport spoke to experts, fans and people acquainted with the game to gauge their views on how the country can compete with the best on the continent in the elite tournament. Brian Kirungi, president of the Patriots club who follows keenly the national team says there is need for more preparedness from both the technical side and the players’ realm. To address this, Kirungi asserted that the Bank of Kigali national league should kick-off in order to have the players at their best. “What is needed now is for the season to start and the players will start playing from scratch because the league is very supportive of the players who will be used in the national team that will play in the Afrobasket final.” He added “The players we have are good but I think they need to stay fit and also the national team should play friendly matches against top teams on the continent to gauge what they need to improve on.” In a separate interview, Richard Nyirishema, the second vice president of the Rwanda Basketball Federation, who was also the head of the delegation in Tunisia, noted that the recent final window helped Rwandan young players to excel, citing that there was hope for better output if preparations come in at the right time. “After the tournament, the national team is not going to stop because there are only six months left before the Afrobasket tournament. The first thing we did was to get a coach. He is the one who will tell us how he wants the team to prepare. When that is done, the team will start preparations. We also want to start the season because it will also help the players to stay in shape,” He noted Nyirishema shared similar sentiments with the team’s captain, Olivier Shyaka, who among others pointed out that his side will now need a sufficient preparation system. For instance, Shyaka said that the national team should be given at least two to three months of adequate friendly matches. “We’ve come to the conclusion that a lot of practice and a lot of friendly games are what helps us to make mistakes and the coach relies on them to use practice that focuses on where we need to improve,” Shyaka said. He added “Since the last tournament in Tunisia, we haven’t played any competitive matches or train aggressively and this is something that affects players. That is why I recommend that we start preparing early and play friendly matches every month,” Nkusi Gasana, a basketball fan who watches the national team’s matches religiously advises players to learn from previous tournaments. “I watched the game Rwanda played against Nigeria and the former were surprised by how Rwanda played. Although Nigeria won, it was not easy for them and I think the two friendly matches that Rwanda played against Morocco and Egypt before the start of the tournament helped,” Gasana reiterated. Following the games, 13 teams have already secured tickets for the Africa Cup of Nations “FIBA Afrobasket Rwanda 2021” to be held in Rwanda from August 24 to September 05, 2021. The teams, including Rwanda, who are hosts, took part in the qualifiers. The national side was in Group D with Nigeria, South Sudan and Mali. Other teams that have secured tickets are Senegal, Angola, Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Tunisia, Egypt, the Central African Republic and the DRC..

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What Rwanda should do to excel at Afrobasket 2021 tourney