With FIBA awarding the wild cards to ASB Mazembe (Congo), Al Naser (Libya), Cobra (South Sudan) and JKT (Tanzania), the ‘Elite 16’ for the next qualification round for the Basketball Africa League have been confirmed.
Six-time NBL champions City Oilers are in the bid to represent Uganda at the maiden Basketball Africa League which is a partnership between FIBA and the NBA. This is the NBA’s first collaboration to operate a league outside of North America. The inaugural BAL season will begin in March 2020. City Oilers qualified for the ‘Elite 16’ at an October event in Dar es Salaam alongside East African rivals, Patriots BBC.
The sixteen teams have been divided into two pools; West Division’s Group G and East Division’s Group H. Group H has Kenya Ports Authority, City Oilers, Ferroviaro de Maputo (Mozambique), Patriots BBC (Rwanda), UNZA (Zambia), GNBC (Madagascar) and the wild cards Cobra (South Sudan) and JKT (Tanzania). Earlier this week, it was announced that Kigali will be the East Division’s Group H host city.
The eight teams will further be divided into two pools of four teams with every team playing 3 games in a round-robin setting with the top two teams advancing to the semi finals, where the teams that finish in the first three places will qualify for the Basketball Africa League regular season in March 2020.
Group H Qualification event will take place from December 17 – 22 in Kigali Rwanda. Visibly, the competition has gotten stiffer for the Oilers in their quest to carry the Ugandan flag at BAL. A lot hereon will depend on who Oilers get pooled with in Kigali and how well they execute.
Cucu Brian | Twitter: @Cucubrian
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