Basketball in Africa

The Botswana Basketball Association (BBA) says it is now ready to stage the delayed top-eight tournament. The association intends to hold the event in two weeks. BBA vice president Mothusi Phokoje told Mmegi Sport that they will stage the tournament at the University of Botswana (UB) courts in Gaborone.
The tournament has been delayed because of problems in the BBA management. This saw the association calling a special meeting to elect new officials recently.Phokoje said BBA has had trouble staging the top-eight because there was no link between the executive committee and the tournament organisers. He lamented that there was no monitoring but now they are committed to clean their house and take basketball to higher levels. "As the vice president, I have assigned myself to take care of every activity of the association and you would see things running smoothly," Phokoje promised. He said the league would start immediately after the top-eight tournament.
Meanwhile, league champions Troopers will be up against eighth -laced Falcons next week. Runners-up Police V would take on Cadets in a clash that has all the ingredients of a thriller given the rivalry between the two Gaborone giants. Flames hope to burn Spartans while Drillers would want to prove their mettle over BDF. Women clubs taking part in the tournament are Vixens, BDF Clevels, Relix and Selebi-Phikwe Falcons.
Phokoje acknowledged the gap between BBA and the northern teams but promised to rectify the situation soon.He said he has received complaints from northern teams crying that they are not consulted and the BBA does not communicate with them. "BBA is planning to solve that.
Now we have the contacts of everybody in basketball and everything would be fine this year," he promised. Flames' chairman-cum-coach Matt Leowen was happy that there would be action at long last.
He said that his boys would have a reason to train now other than to play friendlies. He vowed to give his opponents a run for their money in the top eight tournament.