Patriots gear up for inaugural Africa Basketball season tourney

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Damas Sikubwabo

Patriots captain Aristide Mugabe goes past a REG player during a league match last season. Patriots will represent Rwanda in the BAL tournament slated for May. / Sam Ngendahimana.

Patriots Basketball Club, Rwanda’s representatives in the upcoming inaugural Basketball Africa League (BAL), will start training next week ahead of the elite competition.

The BAL inaugural season will take place from May 16 to 30 in Kigali, Rwanda, and it is the first professional league run by the NBA outside North America.

Speaking to Times Sport on Monday, the club’s spokesperson, Jose Edouard Munyangaju said that the club’s sessions will be held in compliance of Covid-19 preventive measures. He did not specify the exact day that the training will start.

"Due to the conditions in this period, we are yet to officially start formal training because we need to respect the guidelines in place to fight Covid-19. But their training will happen at various locations in the city, and they are well monitored by the technical team,” he said.

"The team will be training under strict Covid-19 guidelines to protect themselves as well as the public,” he added.

Munyanaju also said that the club might draft new players for the tournament.

"If new players are added, we want to make sure they fit in and that it will only be to benefit the team.”

"At this time we are still finalizing our final roster and that includes coaching staff,” he noted.

In January this year, the club extended contracts of four senior players ahead of the 2020/21 season. The quartet who renewed their contracts are; Dieudonné Ndizeye – the league MVP of the 2018/19 season, centre Bush Wamukota, forward Steven Hagumintwari and point guard Guibert Nijimbere.

They each signed a two-year deal, while Hitayezu, who crossed from local side IPRC Kigali, was offered three years – until the end of the 2022/23 season.

Below are the 12 club teams from 12 African countries that will compete in the inaugural BAL season:

Ferroviario de Maputo (Mozambique), GNBC (Madagascar), Rivers Hoopers (Nigeria), Petro de Luanda (Angola), AS Douanes (Senegal), AS Police (Mali), FAP (Cameroon), Union Sportive Monastir (Tunisia), AS Sale (Morocco), GSP (Algeria), Patriots (Rwanda) and Zamalek (Egypt).