L. MathekaTricky balancing act as Morans begin preps ahead of World Cup qualifiers
Reading Time: 2min | Wed. 26.01.22. | 10:20
16 African teams play the FIBA Basketball World Cup African Qualifiers during five World Cup qualifying windows.
Coach Sadat Gaya will take charge of Kenya Morans training ahead of the side's FIBA World Cup African qualifiers scheduled for 25 to 27 February.
Head coach Cliff Owuor is expected to join the team on 5 January, two days before Morans first match of the qualifiers against DRC.
The AfroCAN silver medalists are in group D the has Senegal, Egypt and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
After all is said, what's the be done? https://t.co/NOfxwul2En via @MozzartSportKe
— Matheka (@Lynmatheka) January 21, 2022
On 9 January, the Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) released a 20-man provisional squad that included nine local based players. Tyler Ongwae, who was part of the initial squad, however, revealed that he had stepped down from the team.
Of the nine local based players five are currently playing for their respective teams in the ongoing KBF playoffs.
Only Victor Bosire, Valentine Nyakinda and Joseph Khaemba who have elected not to play for Ulinzi Warriors in the playoffs as well as Embakasi Youth's Eugene Adera are not engaged in the playoffs.
Coach Gaya is also in the thick of it, his side, Nairobi City Thunder, having lost his Game One match against Strathmore Blades in the best-of-three quarters.
The process of qualification that began in November last year has 16 teams divided into four groups with four team apiece.
Each team will face the other three teams in their group in two tournaments played over three event windows. The teams will play three games in each window. These nine-day windows started in November 2021 with the second set for February 2022 and June 2022.
Coach Liz Mills out of Kenya Morans as WCQ provisional squad is named https://t.co/tPbbwD3CYz via @MozzartSportKe
— Meshack Kisenge (@kisengemeshack1) January 9, 2022
The top three teams from each group will advance to the Second Round of the African Qualifiers. Here, the group’s three advancing teams will join three other teams to create two six-team groups. All teams will carry over their results from the First Round.
In the Second Round, each team will play each new team in their group during two tournaments played over two event windows schedule in August 2022 and February 2023.
At the end of these additional six games per team, the two top teams in each group, along with the best third-placed team, will qualify to the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023
