Kenya Morans final list for FIBA World Cup African qualifiers named

Tactician Cliff Owuor has named National men's basketball team, Kenya Morans, final list for the FIBA World Cup African qualifiers scheduled for 25 to 27 February at Dakar, Senegal.

The team has a good balance between the local-based and foreign-based players with seven and five respectively and jetted out of the country on Wednesday morning with the foreign-based legion expected to link up with the team in Senegal directly.

Tom 'Bush' Wamukota, Tylor Ongwae, Desmond Owili, Faheem Juma, and Ronnie Gundo miss out on the list despite all having been part of the team that played at the FIBA Afrobasket championship in August last year.

Ulinzi Warriors dominate the list of local-based players with four as KPA, Equity, and Thunder share the other three slots with one player each.

After missing Afrobasket, dependable forwards Preston Bungei and Joel Awich who were instrumental in the national men's basketball team's win against Angola to book a ticket to the competition, return to the side.

The process of qualification that began in November last year has 16 teams divided into four groups with four teams each.

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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.

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

Final Squad

Griffin Ligare, Ariel Okal, Albert Odera, Joel Owich, Valentine Nyakinda, Victor Bosire, Eric Mutoro, Preston Bungei, Joseph Khaemba, Byron Ayodi, Fidel Okoth, Victor Ochieng

Officials

1. Mercine Milimu - Team Manager

2. Cliff Owuor - Head Coach

3. Sadat Gaya - Assistant Coach

4. Duncan Ndeda - Team Doctor

5. Erastus Wainaina - Physiotherapist