APR Basketball Club’s elimination from the Basketball Africa League (BAL) 2024 regular season not only shocked players and their coaches, the club management and the fans but also basketball enthusiasts in Rwanda in general. The army side, coached by American veteran coach Mazen Trakh, became the first Rwandan team to miss out on BAL finals since competition’s inception in 2021. Patriots BBC (semifinals in 2021) and REG (quarterfinals both in 2022 and 2023) made it to the playoffs. AS Douanes closed their Sahara Conference campaign with a 3-3 record and secured the last playoffs ticket alongside top of the Conference Rivers Hoopers and Tunisia’s US Monastir who advanced as one of the top two third-ranked teams across all conferences. APR were sent packing after finishing the conference games at the bottom with a 2-4 win-ratio. In this article, Times Sport examines what might have gone wrong that cost APR the ticket to play the playoffs at home. Thin squad, limited rotations Just like other teams, APR had a squad of 13 players at the BAL’s Sahara Conference, but they mostly depended on just a handful of players during the Sahara Conference, and tried hard not to do many rotations, a factor which made the players tired. Adonis Filer, Obadiah Noel, Dario Hunt, Axel Mpoyo, and William Robeyns were the mainstay of the team and played many minutes which was a risk of wearing them out. The likes of Chris Ruta, Larsson Shema, and Mohamed Camara barely stepped on the court. The players who were entrusted with games not only got tired, but also risked fouling out or getting injured, no wonder the team later got blighted with injuries against some of its key players. Falling short of recruiting best local talents Before the Sahara Conference tipped off, APR made some good trade in American point guard Obadiah Noel who plays in the NBA G-League. The 24-year-old came out to be a real trailblazer for the army side and played a key role in the team’s two victories. However, questions continue to linger around the club’s recruitment system. For example, it is argued that the team did not hire the best local talents to beef up the foreign contingent that Trakh had at his disposal. Some of the best players in the Rwandan league like Steven Hagumintwari and Dieudonne Ndizeye, or even Jean Victor Mukama shouldn’t have missed out on APR’s squad and could have potentially pushed the team further. Losing key players to injuries APR could still have pushed beyond the conference stage had it not been for injuries to star guards Adonis Filer and Obadiah Noel who both suffered injuries against Rivers Hoopers. Filer suffered an Achilles’ tendon injury that may side-line him for a period between eight months and one year, while Noel picked up a hamstring injury which could be healed in a couple of weeks. Noel was arguably APR’s best player at BAL until his injury, and as usual, Filer also made his impact felt with his experience, leadership and of course skills. The duo’s absence vs Rivers Hoopers was arguably a key factor to why the team lost it albeit on very close margins. They also did not feature in the final game vs AS Douanes who went on to oust APR out of the playoffs. Poor game management One of the key factors that cost APR a qualification to the BAL playoffs. For instance, Trakh’s men let US Monastir take a win out of their hands in the second round when they seemed to have the game in control leading at some point in the first quarter by more than 10 points before the Tunisians fought back to turn the score around and lead the game. The pair went toe-to-toe before the game ended 70-83 in favor of Monastir. Again, APR’s loss to Rivers Hoopers in the fourth fifth game can be blamed on poor game management. The team was leading by nine points by the end of the third quarter but the Nigerians bounced back to tie the score at 58-58 and force an overtime and eventually win the game after the second overtime. Defence problems There may be a number of issues that can be pointed out on the defence side of things, both positive and negative. But it is poor defense around which the team failed to tick, due to the fact that the players struggled with rebounding be it defensive or offensive. Contrary, their opponents made them make a big number of turnovers that cost them the game in a way or another.
