AFROBASKET, the biggest basketball event on the continent, gets underway in Kigali next week. It is the first edition since it was a quadrennial competition in 2017.

Before the 2017 restructuring, the African Basketball Championship, or Afrobasket as it is commonly known, used to be held once in two years.

This year’s tournament runs from August 24 to September 5. All the 36 games will be played at Kigali Arena. First-time hosts Rwanda will be making a sixth appearance in the Afrobasket since 2007.

Rwanda has been drawn in Group A along with powerhouse Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo and Cape Verde.

In this Weekend Sport issue, we take a closer at Group A teams, and Rwanda’s chances of progressing to the quarter-finals.

Angola 

The Angolan men’s national basketball team, the most decorated side in Afrobasket history with 11 titles, is not only considered as Group A favourites but they also make one of the top title contenders.

Angola has also been at every World Cup edition since 1986, with the only exception being 1998, whereas Rwanda has never qualified for the highly rated competition.

However, since winning their last Afrobasket silverware in 2013, Angola has struggled to be the team that once dominated African basketball, and has at least been managed by four different head coaches – Moncho Lopez, Manuel Silva, Will Voigt and Jose Neto – all with little success.

Thanks to their comprehensive Afrobasket success over the last three decades, Angola also automatically qualified to five straight Olympic Games between 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008.

Cape Verde

After losing the pre-qualifiers two-game series to Algeria (169-166 on aggregate) in January 2020, Cape Verde reemerged stronger to snatch the last available Afrobasket ticket last month after finishing third in Group E of the qualifiers, behind Egypt and Uganda.   

The 2021 African Championship marks Cape Verde’s seventh appearance in the tournament history after 1997, 1999, 2007, 2009, 2013 and 2015.

Being drawn alongside hosts Rwanda, Angola and DR Congo seems theoretically challenging for Cape Verde, however, if key players Tavares, Almeida, Xavier and Sekouba Conde are healthy and available, Cape Verde could cause some upsets in Kigali.

Democratic Republic of Congo

DR Congo snatched their ticket to this year’s Afrobasket finals by finishing as runners-up to Tunisia in Group A qualifiers with a 3-3 run. They lost twice to Tunisia and once against Central African Republic (CAR), while they managed one win against CAR and beat Madagascar twice.

Just like Rwanda, neighbours DR Congo will be making their sixth Fiba Afrobasket appearance, having previously competed in the tournament at the 1995, 2005, 2007, 2015 and 2017 editions.

The side have a pool of players who make a different when it is needed the most such as Ruphin Kayembe, the team’s top-scorer with a total of 69 points during the qualifiers, alongside Myck Kabongo Lukasa (63 points, and 21 rebounds), and Jordan Sakho (47 points, and 57 rebounds).

Being drawn against mighty Angola and lowly Cape Verde, DR Congo is widely seen as Rwanda’s biggest rival for a ticket to the knockouts.

Rwanda

Very few Afrobasket hosts have won the tournament on home soil in the last two decades, now it is Rwanda’s turn to try challenging the course of events. Despite an unsatisfactory 1-5 win ratio in the qualifiers, Rwanda had an automatic finals ticket courtesy of the hosting privilege.

This will be Rwanda’s sixth Afrobasket appearance since its 2007 debut, having only since missed the 2015 edition.

For head coach Cheihk Sarr, he has insisted, the top priority is making it out of the group stage and, from there, focus on one knockout game at a time.