Basketball Africa League, BAL inaugural season starting to heat up, Africa’s best Basketball clubs discovered their fate in Sunday’s draw that sees Patriots, GNBC, Rivers Hoopers, and US Monastir in the group of death.
With just 13 days to go before 12 teams from 12 African countries compete in Kigali for the best basketball crown on the African continent, the group draw has already been made with three groups each consisting of four teams.
Even if the groups are three, every tournament needs a group of death. In group A, Rwanda’s representatives in this maiden edition of BAL will face The Nigerian three-time league champions, Rivers Hoopers, a five-time Tunisia league champion and 2017 Africa club championship second runner up, US Monastir, and Madagascar’s GNBC that earned respect for the clean basketball during the qualifiers.
Rivers Hoopers made significant signings to prepare for this much-anticipated tournament including Ugandan shooting guard, Robinson Opong who replaced the injured Festus Ezeli. Among the new recruits, the Port Harcourt-based club acquired the services of Nigerian AfroBasket winner, Ben Uzoh, the USA-born Center Chris Daniels, and forward Taren Sullivan.
They hired the Nigeria men’s team assistant coach too, Mr. Ogoh Odaudu. The club will depart to Kigali this Monday as all the participating teams are required to be in Rwanda before May 7
Unlike other teams looking for additions from the USA, the US Monastir has turned their attention to the Lebanese league taking the Sudanese-born and former NBA second-round pick, Ater Majok.
The forward was drafted and selected by the Los Angeles Lakers in 2011. Together with his Lebanese compatriot Wael Arakji, they make a strong roster alongside the experienced Tunisia international forward Radhouane Slimane and American guard Emmanuel Quezada who currently plays for this Tunisia giant.
This team declare themselves as the favorites as according to their head coach Ferjani Safouene, they are going to play BAL to win it.
Both Rivers Hoopers and US Monastir will have a serious challenger from Patriots BC that will be fighting for the pride as the host and they will be benefiting from the home advantage.
Patriots named the American coach Alan Major as their head coach to guide the Rwandan champions in this tournament. This club secured the signature of Rwandan International and England-based center, Prince Ibeh, and new faces in the squad are expected to be announced too.
Gendermarie Nationale Basketball Club completes this group. Despite considered an underdog in this group, GNBC proved to be a very organized encounter with very fast and serious offensive transitions. The team will be led by Malagasy Navalo Rahariderana who handed them the qualification with an impressive 6-3 win rate in two rounds of Qualifications.
In the group stage, teams will face each other once. The top two teams with the two best third-ranked teams will be advanced to knockout stages where they will be playing a single-elimination game from quarterfinal to the final and third place.
The BAL will take place between May 16 and 30 at the Kigali Arena, Rwanda and fixtures will be released in due course
Groups for BAL Inaugural season:
Group A: Rivers Hoopers (Nigeria), Patriots BBC (Rwanda), US Monastir (Tunisia), and GNBC (Madagascar)
Group B: Petro de Luanda (Angola), AS Police (Mali), AS Salé (Maroc) and FAP (Cameroun)
Group C: Zamalek (Egypt), AS Douanes (Senegal), Ferroviário de Maputo (Mozambique) and GS Pétroliers (Algeria)
