Mobi Akiode
ESPN is running a series called “Her Story”. In one of the episodes, they profile a young Nigerian lady named Mobolaji (“Mobi”) Akiode who is making a difference to the game in Nigeria.
Mobi played for the Nigerian national team at one time, and also spent time living with her family in Newark, New Jersey, working for ESPN as an accountant.
The IWBF Africa World Cup Qualifiers for Wheelchair Basketball will be hosted in South Africa with 8 African countries participating in Wheelchair Basketball at Mandeville Indoor Sports Centre, for the qualification to the World Cup in Birmingham July 2010.
Countries Attending – Algeria, Angola, Gabon, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa & Zimbabwe
Tournament dates: 3 – 10 October 2009.
Here is the full schedule:
2 October 2009 Officials & Team Arrival
Friday
19:00 Meeting IWBF & IWBF AFRICA Competitions
3 October 2009 Meetings & Player Classification
Saturday
09:00 IWBF Africa Competitions & Team Management Meeting
11:00 Team Classification
14:00 Executive IWBF Africa Meeting Continue reading »
The senior men’s team recently took part in the African Championship in Libya. Despite this being an opportunity for South Africa to go out there and create relationships with other African nations and see how we could learn from them, our national body Basketball South Africa (BSA) missed that opportunity with various blunders along the way… Then there was the Florida State University visit to our shores that went unnoticed, well almost but BSA didn’t cover itself in glory in that scenario either (No proper kit, lack of proper communication).
With BSA being in office for almost a year, there have been a lot of positive to come out of this new regime and other things that have remained the same or gotten worse. With everyone waiting to see what structures and plans that they would put in place to lift the sport from it’s smouldering ashes, I feel that they might have missed an opportunity to engage the various stake holders and get the help that they need.
Anyway I would like to focus on the men national teams that have had a rough time of late. If there is a positive to come out of the new regime, it is the amount of games that the various national teams have participated in. From the U16s competing in Zimbabwe with dignity to our ladies senior team qualifying outright for the African Championship later this year and the Men senior team going to represent the country in Libya.
That’s was quite the busy program for the teams but the thing that BSA didn’t look at is the finer details, it’s all good to say that we are taking part in competitions all over the world but if you don’t take care of how the teams will prepare leading up to such events or how they will get to those events and be treated then they might as well not enter and save everyone the headache involved. This is why I believe that instead of jumping onto all these tournaments, BSA would have been better served making sure that the various structures within the national setup are ready for international competition. I am sure that the players and coaches would have been ok to wait another year without competition if they knew that when it eventually came back it was going to be worth it. Continue reading »
1. Composition of groups:
Group A: Libya, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire and South Africa
Group B: Angola, Mozambique, Egypt and Mali
Group C: Cameroon, Senegal, Congo and Central africa
Group D: Cape Verde, Maroc, Rwanda and Tunisia
The groups A and B will play at Benghazi while the groups C and D will play in Tripoli.
Please find below the games schedule Continue reading »
I’m back with a quick update on the ongoing preparations of some of the countries that will be taking part in the African Basketball Championships in Libya in early August this year:
Mozambique is participating in the Lusophony Games (For former Portuguese Colonies) and lost surprisingly their first game to Guinea-Bissau 68-62. Their roster looks like the one which will be in Libya as well, so not a good sign for the country if they loose to a lowly rated team that did not even participate in the qualifiers.
The Elephants from the Ivory Coast went to the U.S. and are currently in Sacramento for the summer league (?).
Coach Dessarzin took 12 players on the trip while Stephane Konate will be later joining the team in Spain, where it will be having another series of games and a camp (20th – 29th of July).
Adolphe Coulibaly, Mamery Diallo and Jonathan Ouegnin were cut and won’t be part of the Elephants in this year’s roster. Continue reading »
AND1 is back in South Africa and the brand has been entrusted to DarkChild Productions. “We are very excited to have a brand that has been a part of basketball for years back in South Africa” says Cabby Magongwa (owner of DarkChild Productions). Magongwa says that this business is something that he looked to be a part of since he started DarkChild Productions in 2004 and finally the dream has come true. “Perhaps it was for a good course that it had to take this long for us to acquire the rights to distribute this magnificent brand, and this is thanks to Mike Merafe for introducing to me the opportunity through his American Sporting Goods contacts” says Magongwa.
