With qualifiers of the inaugural Basketball Africa League (BAL) coming up, Patriots players will have no time to relax or celebrate their recent success in retaining the league title.

The three-time champions start preparations on Monday, with the qualifiers due October 15-20 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Patriots proved their supremacy a fortnight ago to lift their second championship in a row – the first team to do so since 2015 – as they fought back from a 3-1 deficit against Rwanda Energy Group in the playoffs finals to win the series 4-3 at Kigali Arena.

With their historic comeback, Patriots claimed the only slot allocated to Rwanda in the highly anticipated BAL Championship, which starts in February 2020.

Speaking to Times Sport on Sunday, the club’s Vice President Thierry Nzaramba revealed the technical team ‘might consider’ reinforcing the squad with a few players from local rivals as the target is to stage up a strong representation of the country in the continental showpiece.

"We only have two weeks to prepare, but I believe we will be ready on time. Training starts on Monday (today) and, if necessary, our technical team will consider borrowing a few players from other teams to beef up the squad.”

"The league rivalry doesn’t apply here. All we want is to represent well the country.”  

It is expected that a total of 31 teams divided into 6 groups will take part in the preliminary qualifiers for the available 16 slots in the next round.

The Rwandan champions have been placed in Group D along with Hawassa from Ethiopia, City Oilers from Uganda, JKT from Tanzania, Brave Hearts from Malawi and Dynamo from Burundi.

In separate interviews, Rwanda international and Patriots skipper Aristide Mugabe appealed to his teammates to regroup quickly and set their minds on the next challenge.

"We need to forget about the league title and set our minds on the BAL qualifiers. We will be facing the champion teams from other countries.”

"We can’t take the competition lightly.”

editor@newtimesrwanda.com