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Kigali — With exactly 31 days to the 25th FIBA Africa Nations Championship for Men (Afrobasket 2009) in Libya, teams have stopped at nothing to make sure they are in the best possible shape. Rwanda's Group D opponent Morocco has been locked in the Mediterranean Games in Pescara, Italy.
Although the North Africans failed to win a game at the group stage, they certainly boosted their confidence after playing some of the world's top basketball nations in Greece, Serbia and Croatia.
Morocco, who won the Afrobasket event back in 1965, put up spirited fights against Greece 84-96, Croatia 63-75 and Serbia 66-77.
In the latest FIBA ranking, Greece and Serbia are ranked 4th and 5th while Croatia are ranked 18th . Angola, ranked 12th is the only African nation in the top twenty.
From these results, Rwanda knows that they have a huge weight on their shoulders. Rwanda is drawn in Group D alongside Morocco, Tunisia and Cape Verde and based on recent remarks from Rwanda's basketball federation president Eric Kalisa that anything short of a top eight finish will be disappointing, the national team head coach Kavedzija Vaceslav knows that the team needs to dig out two wins at the group stage to qualify for the quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, Nigeria is virtually satisfied with the Afrobasket draws where they were drawn in Group A alongside Libya, Ivory Coast and wildcards South Africa.
The President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) Tijani Umar was quoted on the Fiba-Africa website (www.fiba-afrique.org) saying, "For me, it couldn't have been better than this if you take into consideration the setting of the other groups especially Groups B and C.
I believe it is a sign of good things to come for Nigeria in this competition and beyond. We'll take each game as it comes and then we can gradually work our way up.
Every game is very important and every team will be treated as a potential champion and I believe that is the only way we can get it right in Libya."
The Nigerian national team 'The Tigers' is currently camping in Houston, USA.
Defending champions Angola will be gunning for a 10th title this year.
Julius Mbaraga