Basketball in Africa

2012 saw the national basketball coach’s contract terminated by the local basketball federation (Ferwa­ba). It was a bold decision and by far the most outstanding by the federa­tion.
The sack came after Rwanda’s wobbly performance in the Afrobas­ket U-18 Men’s championship which was held in Maputo, Mozambique.
The Junior Hoops flattered to deceive as they won their opening Group match against Mozambique before losing their remaining three matches (Tunisia 43-38 Rwanda, Mali 47-33 Rwanda and Rwanda 43-48 Ghana) to eventually finish last in their group and miss out on a place in the quarter-finals.
Their 66-74 loss against Morocco in the classification matches further pushed them to the bottom of the overall standings.
Espoir suffered a similar fate in the Fiba-Africa Club Champion­ships which were held in Equato­rial Guinea. Even after reinforcing the squad with two experienced players in Kami Kabange and Bien­venue Ngandu, Espoir, who have dominated local bas­ketball this sea­son, found the going tough as they lost all their group matches before also suffering back to back defeats in their two classification games.