Last updated results for 18 october 2009:
Overall standing and result of the final match:
Oct 12
Oct 08
ANTANANARIVO (FIBA Africa Championship for Women) – The draw for the 21st FIBA Africa Championship for Women was held Saturday in Hotel Colbert, Antananarivo, Madagascar with the twelve countries drawn into six nations of two pools.
Host Madagascar lead Group-A alongside 2007 host and runner-up, Senegal, South Africa, Cameroon, Mauritius and Mozambique completing the group.
Heading Group-B is the defending champion, Mali alongside 2007 second runner-up, Angola, Rwanda, Guinea, Tunisia and FIBA Africa Zone-III qualifiers.
Madagascar will open its campaign against Mauritius on October 9 while Mozambique and Cameroon will tango in another group-A pairing just as Senegal takes to the floor against South Africa in the last group-A game of the opening day of the FIBA Africa Championship for Women.
Mali will open her title defense against Zone-3 qualifiers on October 9; other group games are as follows; Continue reading »
Jul 19
The USSA team recently came back from Serbia where they didn’t fare really well, finishing last. We can be quick to point the blame on the coaches or players but I think that before we do that we should look at the planning that went into getting the team selected and ready to participate in this tournament. We don’t seem to learn from our mistakes and year in and year out we sent teams to international tournaments hoping that they will pull off miracles and win a game or two or even qualify in the case of qualifiers.
The young men and the coaches that went to represent South Africa at the World Student Games went there with the best intentions but with the wrong tools or not enough of them. It’s like going to play a basketball game and when you get there you realize that you didn’t bring any balls and the hoops are not available but there are two teams and all the officials are there. My point is that I feel that this team was set up to fail from the time they were selected at the USSA tournament at the University of Pretoria earlier in the year. The team didn’t have enough depth at the post position and if that says that we don’t have depth at our tertiary institutions then all I can say is that the game at senior level is as doomed as it is at junior level. As far as the coaches are concerned, I can guarantee that there is no coach that goes into a big tournament like this with the intention to lose or not do well, so before we criticize the coaches we should ask ourselves if they were given the right material to work with from the start… That my take on the World Student Games where South Africa came 25th out of 25 teams… Better planning from USSA next time might help the teams achieve better. Continue reading »
May 27
As part of their preparations to the African Championships in Madagascar, the ladies national team undertook a trip to Angola to take part in a four nations tournament. The tournament was attended by Portugal, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa and the hosts Angola.
In their first game against Portugal: It was a tough game because the team had spend the day travelling from Luanda without food or water and had to play a few hours after landing. The ladies lost 95-36. Continue reading »
Mar 17
Preparing to face Zimbabwe in their own backyard from 6 – 9 March 2009
Our preparation for this qualifier was no different than any of the previous national teams that have been through this before. We had a four day camp in February, and our five day camp prior to departing in March. What was and is different is the quiet determination shown by each player. Being the first time with the Ladies team, it was a surprise to hear that Zimbabwe is our “bogey” team. No disrespect intended to our previous National teams and coaches, that was more ignorance on my part, being involved with the junior boys, one tended to focus more on the male basketball.
With a bit of research, and shared information from previous coaches, it soon became clear that qualifying is not as straight forward as expected, even though Basketball in South Africa would really be boosted by the achievement. Zimbabwe are traditionally strong rebounders, up tempo physical players. So we used the opportunities provided to prepare as best we could.
Relief as girls make it
Mar 07
Basketball South Africa is participating in the zonal competition in the women section. SA will be hosted by Zimbabwe to play two games on Saturday and Sunday the 7th and 8th of March 2009 respectively in a play-off game to qualify for the 2009 women’s African championship to be hosted in Madagascar. Mozambique and Angola have already qualified so its winner takes all between Zimbabwe and South Africa.
The men’s team is camping for the second time at Mandeville Sports Center starting the 19th March 2009 until they depart for Mozambique. The team will arrive on Friday and they will be preparing for the zone 6 qualification games in Mozambique, where they will come face to face with Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Angola has already qualified for the African Nations Cup to be held in Libya.
Feb 07
Before the Camp began and even after it was underway the underlying problem around it was the fact that the venue was moved at the last minute and the communication to the affected players and coaches wasn’t forthcoming in a speedy manner. With BSA still relying heavily on the support of the Department of Sport and Recreation South Africa, they had to bring it to the HPC in Pretoria because of their existing relationship with SRSA so the process was going to be smoother than taking it to the North West University High Performance Institute. But with the change of venues, this created a series of problems for BSA as far as trying to organize adequate venues for the teams to practice.
With the teams arriving in Tshwane on Wednesday 4th February in the evening, the first real contact the coaches had with the players was on Thursday at the High Performance Center in Pretoria. For the first 2 days of the camp, the players stayed at the Protea Hotel and finally moved to the HPC on Friday. With practice venues an issue, The men spent the 1st day of training on Thursday at Pilditch Stadium indoor center in Pretoria West and the ladies managed to organize the indoor facility at St Mary’s DSG in Hatfield even if they had to use the outdoor courts at Tuks in their afternoon session. With 4 players missing from the men and 3 from the ladies team due to various reasons like work and studies; the attendance of the camp by both the ladies and the men’s team was satisfactory if not excellent.
On the 2nd day of the camp, Basketball South Africa president Malesela Maleka and first Vice President Dr Malumbete Ralethe spoke to the players to welcome them and explain to them what they expected from them in terms of responsibility and the way forward for the senior team. Later in the evening, players got a chance to raise their concerns in a private meeting with the BSA management and hopefully this is a sign of things to come from this new BSA board.
