Which way Kenya Lionesses? Mayienga calls for a change in approach

National Women’s basketball team, Kenya Lionesses, are back in the country from Cameroon where they did duty at the Women’s Afrobasket, finishing ninth after crashing out of the tournament in the pre-quarter qualification stage. 

Pooled alongside hosts Cameroon and Cape Verde in the group stage, the George Mayienga- coached side fell 74-50 to the hosts before picking a hard-fought 61-58 victory over the islanders. 

Lionesses exit Afrobasket stage with lessons

In the pre-quarters match, Lionesses, lost 72-59 to Mozambique in the pre-quarter playoffs qualifier to exit the Women's Afrobasket with one win in three matches. 

Coach Mayienga says the team and Kenyan basketball as a whole will need to go the developmental way, by establishing age-group teams that compete at the continental and international competitions, if the country is to go back to its 1993 exploits. 

Kenya won a Silver medal in Senegal in 1993 but have yet to re-enact that same performance on the same stage. Before their 1993 exploits that saw the team play in the World Cup, they finished fifth at the 1986 edition when they made their debut at the tournament in Maputo, Mozambique. 

The team has since finished 12th at the 2007 edition in Senegal, 10th in 2013 in Mozambique and 11th in 2019 in Senegal before coming in ninth in 2021. Lionesses had booked their ticket to a second straight FIBA Women's AfroBasket and seventh overall when they defeated favourites Egypt 99-83 in the Zone 5 Qualifiers Final at the Kigali Arena. Egypt earned a wild card to the Afrobasket and finished sixth. 

“We lacked the depth to match teams like Cameroon and Mozambique in Yaoundé. Missing Felmas Koranga so close to the championship meant we did not have time to find a worthy replacement. We also travelled with three players who had fallen sick in the last three days of training and could not train. To be honest, we were not ready for the level of competition expected at the continental level,” offered Mayienga. 

The tactician opines that having the age-group teams and more players taking part in 3x3 competitions at a young age would address the problem of depth, transition as well as experience. 

“Having players who are groomed at an early age say from the under-14 team will change the trajectory of our game. These players build their skills and confidence to play internationally early. By the time they get to the under-18 level, they shadow the main team players and it becomes easier to pick on replacements in the event a senior team player is unavailable. This is working for other teams in the region and they are increasingly getting stronger and if we cannot change the way we do things we will be in trouble,” added Mayienga. 

The tactician is credited with taking United States International University (USIU) women’s basketball to great heights in his tenure with the varsity side, winning the national and Zone Five titles, Mayienga believes having a contract and deliverables will also help the national teams. 

“If a coach has a specific contract and set targets, then they would know what to achieve set goals. Whether it is recruiting young players to groom them or scouting far and wide to achieve set goals will all depend on the duration and deliverables in their contract. That way at the end of their term it is even easier to rate their performance.”  

Further, the tactician opines that the national teams, across all the age groups, should use the same philosophy as that makes it easier to integrate them in the national team as opposed to the current situation where players come to the national team from different clubs that have different philosophies. 

“If we have more than half of the squad having come up through the national team ranks, it becomes easier to have the team execute plays. Currently, I have to admit we rely on individual brilliance and some basic plays as we do not have enough time in training to do otherwise,” he concluded.