Kenya Morans confident of a good showing in Afrobasket

National men's basketball team, Kenya Morans, captain Griffin Ligare is confident that they will have a good outing in the Afrobasket Championship set for Rwanda starting from August 24 to September 5.

This will be the first time that the country will be making a comeback to the showpiece after a 29-year hiatus.

The Kenya Morans hit residential camp on Saturday 7 August where they have been for more than a week, and are expected to be until they fly out to Rwanda for the 30th edition of the Championship.

The Nairobi City Thunder point guard notes that they are ready for the tournament and are continuing to polish up to be in better shape when the event starts next week.

"We have prepared well and I believe right now we are taking care of what we can so that we can increase our chances to play great and also come back home with a win. These games are important to us and for Kenyan basketball as a whole because taking part in Afrobasket means the level of basketball in our country will go up. The win against Angola tells everyone what we can do.

"We are a talented group. A group of guys who believe in each other and will always play for each other. It was in that respect that we were able to upset Angola. As we prepare, that is the mentality we are riding on, relying on each other, listening to our coach so that we can be ready for these games," said in an interview with KTN.

Kenya is drawn in Group C alongside Nigeria, Cote D'Ivoire, and Mali and carry the underdog tag but they proved to be no pushover during the qualifiers as they beat Angola in Yaounde, Cameroon to clinch the ticket to Rwanda.

Nigeria are favourites for the tournament and are also fresh from competing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on top of having a three-time former NBA winner with Golden State Warriors Mike Brown as their coach.

Ligare is adamant that despite their ranking, compared to their opponents in the group, they will give their all and will not let the other teams bully them around.

"According to FIBA rankings, those teams are ranked higher than us but that's not a reason for us to be rattled. We will respect them but we will not fear our opponents. All we will do is just take care of what we can,"

"We are not going to back down against anyone. We are just going to put our best foot forward and go against these teams who are ranked higher than us. I can tell everyone that we are going to have a great tournament and they should look forward to great games," Ligare added.