Coach Gaya hoping for improved performance as Morans play two friendlies

The national men’s basketball team, Kenya Morans, have two friendly matches lined up this weekend as they play Equity Dumas on Friday night and South Sudanese Kenyan-based players on Saturday as the team prepares for the AfroCan.

Coach Collins Gaya says that the technical bench is hoping for an improved performance from the squad after more than a week in training, especially on defense.

“From the first friendly last weekend, it was clear that the squad was executing better on offense but our defense was really wanting. We had a slow start offensively but recovered well but defensively we did not improve as the match wore on,” offered coach Gaya who was in charge of Morans in their last outing in the World Cup qualifiers last year.

Kenya Morans begin training ahead of AfroCan

The team had 29 named in the provisional squad earlier in the month but with about two weeks to the second edition of the continental competition set for 8 to 16 July in Angola, only the local-based players are in camp.

However, the tactician believes that since most of the players have been with the team before and understand the basics and philosophy of the team, and will take as little time to gel with the rest of the squad.

“The current squad is camp is getting to gel and for the debutants, they have some players to learn from. This gives me confidence that when the internationals come in there will be little adjustments needed.

It is not yet time to press the panic button with arrivals as we have a bit more time but it gets problematic if those players won’t be in camp next week. We need to gauge where every player is physically and how they fit into the system so we are hoping to have them joining soon,” Gaya further explained.

The silver medalists from the inaugural edition held in 2019 and won by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been placed in pool A against Gabon and the winner of the playoff between Zone 2's Guinea and teams from Zones 3.

Hosts Angola will face Mali and a team to be awarded a wildcard in Group B.

Group C will be complete with Morocco and the winners of Zones 1 and 5 qualifiers. Reigning champions DRC were drawn in Group D alongside Mozambique and Cameroon.

Algeria and Tunisia will fight for Zone 1’s solo ticket for the Final Round, next week while five teams will gather in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, later this month to find Zone 5's representative for the Angola showpiece.