What Morans need to make an impact at the Afrobasket

National men's basketball team, Kenya Morans, jetted back in the country in the wee hours of Wednesday, 24 February morning , from Cameroon where they just qualified for the biennial Afrobasket Championship for the first time in 28 years. 

With a grand reception scheduled for later in the day, there is expected to be pomp and colour as the team is honoured for their heroics in Cameroon and rightfully so. When Kenya last participated in the Afrobasket, half of the current squad were yet to be born and those who had were barely out of their diapers. 

A journey that can be traced back to 2018 when a select team played friendly matches here in Nairobi and away in Rwanda has culminated in the historic feat of a Kenyan squad beating eleven-time Afrobasket champions Angola to qualify for the Afrobasket. 

However, the question after all the excitement and celebration has died down is will Kenya head to Rwanda in August for the Afrobasket championship as a competitor or just to fill the numbers? 

Basketball coach and former Morans player who captained the last Kenyan squad that featured in the 1993 Afrobasket held in Nairobi, Ronnie Owino believes the kind of preparation that the team is going to have will determine the answer to that question. 

"We have to give credit to everyone who was in Cameroon and made this happen. Hats off to them for getting it done. Moving forward, we should not get caught in the celebration mood and forget what awaits. The task ahead is huge and if we are to leave a mark on that stage preparations for August have to be better," said Owino. 

He continued, "We already know the championship dates so preparations should get underway immediately. In past assignments our timing, duration of preparation and comfort of players has been wanting and that has to change. If we head to Rwanda with our best assembled and prepared squad, whatever the result will be is acceptable as we will know we did our best then build on that."

Owino underscored the importance of strengthening the playing unit with available Kenyan players both locally and internationally with a view of equipping ourselves with size, height and skill. 

"The game has changed and with that the traditional positions and responsibilities have changed. However, size matters. From the first match against Senegal, it was obvious that we could not match their size and we should expect more of such squads at the Afrobasket championship. Some of the teams did not have their best players feature in the qualifiers but they will most likely be included for the August showpiece," Owino, who also played in the 1985 and 1989 Afrobasket championships in Ivory Coast and Angola respectively further said. 

While Morans lost to Senegal with a respectable score and pulled a surprise on Angola, Owino believes the loss to Mozambique, a team Morans beat in the November qualifier window when some of the key players were missing, was a wake-up call that there is work to be done.