SHEFFIELD (Julio Chitunda’s African Message) - This year’s 12-team AfroBasket Women is up and running in Yaounde, Cameroon, and I have already witnessed some ups and downs.

As well as crowning the continental champions, the tournament will also offer the only automatic place on offer for Africa teams for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Here are some highs and low moments of the tournament as of Sunday 27 September.

Low point 1. Guinea late arrival.

1. Over the course of the years, African basketball competition has been marked by last minute withdrawals due to management issues.

And, having seen Ghana (2011) and Zimbabwe (2013) arriving at the stage of the tournament a day or two later, I was expecting this year to be different.

However, Guinea did exactly what others had done before, missing their first game against Nigeria.

They arrived in Yaounde with a nine-player roster, instead of 12 players - in the early hours of 25 September, and by 11am they were facing Egypt.

It’s general knowledge that some federations face enormous difficulties to run the game of basketball in their own countries.

Unless FIBA impose tough measures on teams' arrival timing in Africa competitions, we will continue to see situations like this happening over and over again, which, in fact, collides with the purposes of the new competition system which is due to enter in action from 2017.

Eventually, Guinea did face Nigeria using only eight players on Sunday, which was a Rest Day for other ten teams.

Guinea and Nigeria - the latter ends up being punished without causing any disruption - will compete five games in a row until the second Rest Day on Wednesday, 30 September.

With that being said, I invited France-born Guinea’s leading scorer and rebounder Nadia Peruch-Niang - who has played professional basketball in Europe - to sharing her thoughts on her team’s experience in Yaounde and how they can change things moving forward.

Peruch-Niang working to encourage change of mentalities in Guinea basketball 

“I don’t want to be too negative because I know how it is suppose to be done, and I know how it is done in Guinea," she said.

“The Federation did everything by themselves. They had no help from the State, which normally has to pay for part of the trip. I know some people fought very hard for us to be here.

“I know it is not perfect but it is a start. It was important to be here.

Until the last minute we didn’t know if were going to come [to Yaounde] - Peruch-Niang

“There are infrastructure problems. There are so many problems that we have to take one at a time. That’s why I came, that’s why I am here.

“There is going to come a time where we will be able to point fingers and start trying change mentalities. I am not a patient person but I have to be.

“In France nothing would be handled this way, but we don’t have same means, experiences and we don’t have the same problems,” she concluded.

Low point 2. Senegal coach Moustapha Gaye.

The ugliest moment of the tournament so far was the attitude of Senegal's head coach Moustapha Gaye towards an officiating team.

Moustapha Gaye, head coach of Senegal

Senegal trailed Angola 49-46 with 12 seconds remaining. Gaye called a timeout, drew a play. As Aya Traore received an inbound pass, she turned the ball over. Gaye thought it was a foul, entered the court screaming at one of the referees, and he was given a technical foul, which allowed Felizarda Jorge to seal Angola’s 50-46 victory.

I wish I knew why Gaye was not ejected because of his disrespectful attitude to the game of basketball. I also wish I knew why Gaye took the blame on the officiating team for Senegal's defeat while his team turned the ball over 20 times and made only 13 of 21 free-throws (62 percent).

Low point 3. FIBA has banned vuvuzelas from all of its events, but fans continue to bring them to AfroBasket Women 2015 games.

But this year’s AfroBasket Women has offered lots of positive facts.

1. Every time Cameroon take to the floor, it is a celebration moment for local fans, who sing, dance and cheer tirelessly for their team throughout the game.

2. It’s been a joy to seeing Geraldine Robert carrying Gabon (2-1) with all her energies and skills as she leads the tournament in scoring and rebounding.

3. It’s refreshing to seeing Egypt, the youngest team in the tournament averaging just 20 years of age, playing such a disciplined and tenacious game.

4. Mali arrived in Yaounde as a title contender. After conceding a 44-43 defeat to Cameroon, they regrouped and seem a transformed team, beating Gabon in Day 3.

5. Runners-up at AfroBasket Women 2013, Mozambique (2-1) are competing with a renewed team but they remain as competitive.

6. As South Africa head coach Kimathi Taboti told me, they have no pressure and are making the most of the experience.

7. Uganda did play well against Gabon in Day 1, but since then they seem to have run out of gas.

Stay tuned, there will be a lot more motives of interest at AfroBasket Women 2015.

Julio Chitunda

FIBA

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