BAL 2022: Robert Pack in Egypt to scout REG’s opponents

Robert Pack Jr, the American coach of Rwanda Energy Group (REG) Basketball club is currently in Cairo - Egypt to attend group-stage games of the Nile Conference, as a way of keeping an eye on his team’s potential opponents at the playoffs level. Last month, REG qualified for the playoffs that will take place in Kigali in May, a feat they achieved in style as they topped the Sahara Conference that had top teams like Tunisia’s US Monastir, Senegal’s Dakar Université Club Basketball (DUC) and Morocco’s Association Sportive Salé (AS Sale), among others. Earlier this week, Pack was pictured alongside NBA legend Dikembe Mutombo at the Hassan Mostafa Indoor Sports Complex in Cairo, where the Nile Conference games are currently underway. In an interview with Times Sport before the BAL Sahara Conference tipped off, Pack confessed that he did not know much about the teams that REG was going to face. However, he went on to do a good job, as his team managed to qualify for the playoffs. He is now arguably trying to seize the opportunity to scout out the teams in the Nile Conference before REG has to play them in May. The Nile Conference has teams like Egypt’s Zamalek who are the defending champions of the tournament, Angolan Powerhouse Petro de Luanda, BC Espoir Fukash from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cape Town Tigers from South Africa, Cobra Sport from South Sudan, and Forces Armées et Police Basketball (FAP) from Cameroon. The six teams collectively feature 78 players from 12 countries across Africa and the U.S, including former NBA players like Jamel Artis (Cape Town Tigers; last played for the Orlando Magic) and Ike Diogu (Zamalek; last played for the San Antonio Spurs). The top four teams from the Nile Conference will join the top four teams from the Sahara Conference – REG (Rwanda), US Monastir (Tunisia), AS Salé (Morocco) and S.L.A.C (Guinea) – in the 2022 BAL Playoffs, which will be held in Kigali, Rwanda, from May 21-28.