9 Takeaways From Afrobasket 2025 Qualifiers
A few bright spots that caught our eye during the first window of the FIBA Afrobasket 2025 Qualifiers
On the heels of a huge week for international continental competition, African basketball showcased truly exciting moments. The incredibly confident play by four of the five African World Cup participants helped raise the level of play during AfroBasket 2025 Qualifiers across the board. Three of these teams will also play in the Olympic qualifiers in July so they clearly came focused and ready to take this as a serious tune up opportunity. Let’s get right into our observations from the first window of AfroBasket Qualifiers.
Omar Abada is (still) the best point guard in Africa
Tunisia’s biggest strength is and has been their ability to win close games. They’re able to execute under pressure thanks to their passing and their patience. That’s driven by their roster continuity, a deep set of offensive actions and poised pace of their leader Omar Abada.
Abada’s not physically imposing and doesn’t have eye popping athleticism. But he does just about everything well. He rarely forces the issue and knows when to look for others versus look for himself as well as when to play PnR versus swing the ball. Tunisia doesn’t make mistakes and that starts and ends with Abada. He showed off his usual adept decision-making and the ability to score in crunch time, leading his country to a 3–0 record averaging 16.3 PPG, 6.3 APG, 3.3 RPG and just 1.7 TPG.
Libya is back.
Libya has reintroduced themselves to the continent in a big way starting with their surprising performances in the pre-qualifiers against Morocco. They carried that success over and it translated into a storybook overtime win against typical African power, Nigeria. Though Nigeria faced several distracting setbacks before even arriving, Libya jumped on them with deliberate play organized by their incredibly attentive coach, Fouad Bou Chakra. Their point guard, Mohamed Sadi, did the rest, finishing that game with a near quadruple double of 24 PTS, 12 AST, 9REB, 10 STL on 50% shooting.
The Libyans ended up second in their Group, finishing with a 2–1 record and amazing individual numbers from their best player. Sadi ended the competition averaging 17 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 5.7 APG and 5.3 SPG. Hats off to this inspiration of a national team selection. Can Libya keep this going and play their way into an AfroBasket berth? Only time will tell.
Alex Poythress amplifies Côte d’Ivoire’s weapons
It’s not often that we see an All-Euroleague naturalized player grace the floor of an African qualifying tournament, but such was the case last weekend. Alex Poythress made his return to the Ivorian national team and was nothing if not dominant, averaging 21 PPG, and 7.3 RPG on 69.7% shooting inside the arc. Poythress was such a force that he generated intense gravity, with help defenders being forced to dig or double, leaving the perimeter more open than usual. He gladly shared the ball and the recipients could take their time catching and shooting or attacking a late close out.
Poythress’s production obviously helped carry the team, but the amount of attention he attracted almost doubled that impact, helping Côte d’Ivoire achieve a 3–0 record.
Madagascar has legitimate prospects
Not classically known as a basketball country, Madagascar entered AfroBasket qualifiers with a bit of a hill to climb. In their first game, they faced a tough matchup in Côte d’Ivoire but were able to keep the game close throughout thanks to creative individual play by a unique cast of young players.
Sitraka Raharimanantoanina: an early entrant in the 2021 NBA draft, the 6’10” forward is incredibly mobile and versatile. He was adept at getting steals or rebounds and pushing it in transition, making good decisions in the open court.
Elly Randriamampiono: the percentages might not show it but he is a sniper. The degree of difficulty paired with the sheer volume of shots kept defenses honest. He led Madagascar to their lone win of the window over Central African Republic with 22 PTS, 7 ASTS, 4 STLS making 4 three pointers on 36.4% shooting from there.
Monja Faralahy: an unorthodox lefty tweener, it’s difficult to put Faralahy into a conventional box. He can put the ball on the floor and posts up against like-size opponents and smaller. The most intriguing part of his game though is his signature one-foot fadeaway. He has clearly worked on this for some time as it seemed to go in no matter where he pulled up from.
Jerry Rabibisoa: he didn’t showcase the best production, but as one of the youngest players in this tournament with grown men, he deserves a mention. Rabibisoa is still raw but the tools are there, he just needs to work on his decision-making to become a less predictable player.
NBA Academy Africa creates hometown heroes
Recent Loyola Chicago commit Seifeldin Hendawy and Iona recruit Aginaldo Neto made their senior national team debuts during this window. At 17 years old, Neto is unusually skilled at getting people to foul him. It takes many people a good number of years at the pro level to develop that kind of awareness. He had a few nice highlights in the short spurts he played as well, making good passing reads, penetrating and of course drawing fouls.
Hendawy’s situation was a little less conducive to him getting real minutes, as Egypt was a little more complete at the guard and wing positions with vets. He still managed to show flashes though, finding teammates in good positions and generally showing solid effort.
Egypt’s potent new two-man game
Egypt’s qualifying roster looked offensively potent throughout the weekend. A wrinkle they exploited to widen their lead especially in their last game (before ultimately losing the lead) was the two-man game between Amr Gendy and Patrick Gardner. The two lefties showed a wide array of scoring abilities. Gendy’s craftiness to rumble into the paint and finish through contact along with sweet shooting from three point range were tough to guard. He had a stellar final game, finishing with 30 PTS and 10 ASTS, most of which went to Gardner.
The former Brooklyn Nets Exhibit 10 player, Patrick Gardner, showed why he had NBA interest by displaying a smooth stroke, as well as finishing ability and defensive versatility. He should factor into Egypt’s offense in a bigger way, especially in the Olympic qualifiers — what team couldn’t make use of a 6’11” shooter?
Cape Verde’s quiet competence
Cape Verde is quietly putting together a very competent organization that finds a way to win with a balanced attack. They showed a fairly equal opportunity offense without one juggernaut scorer, finishing games with multiple players in double figures yet never having one player score over 18 points.
This kind of connectivity is achieved through organized leadership and selflessness throughout the program. It’s worth mentioning that Cape Verde is one of only two teams in this window to have not changed their coach from the World Cup to now. Coaching continuity is an undervalued asset in international play at times and the Cape Verdeans are starting to reap some of its benefits.
New coaches did their homework
Teams typically use the qualifying tournament as a chance to test drive new or young talent before officially deciding if they should integrate the squad in official competitions. The same can also be said of coaches, as every team except for two (Cape Verde and Guinea) shook things up from their last official competitions to this point:
Although more coaching continuity could be beneficial for high-achieving teams, it was refreshing to see most new coaches build upon opportunity areas for the teams they were leading. This was especially evident in the way the top four teams (three of which are also vying for a spot in the Olympics) made adjustments.
Tunisia’s Mehdy Mary has a wealth of experience coaching youth teams, which serves this team well as they transition from the old guard to the next generation. His inventive schemes and counters fit in nicely with what the hosts already do well.
During the World Cup, we wrote about Côte d’Ivoire needing to find ways to feature their good three-point shooters and John Douaglin did just that by keeping the floor spread and playing an inside out game in the halfcourt.
Egypt’s Henrik Rödl helped select a roster that could be more powerful offensively than in the World Cup and proceeded to develop a style that empowered their guards to score, but also left room for big men to operate efficiently.
Angolan Anibal Moreira coaches with the same heart and spirit the Angolan national team plays with. He took full advantage of their physical shape, playing fast and pressuring high and early on defense. They doubled down on who they were instead of trying to become something different.
This is how you seed a tournament
The scheduling of this tournament overall was simply delightful with each day giving basketball fans different storylines to follow. The first day featured winnable matchups with upset potential and good games. We actually witnessed history that very first day when unranked Libya defeated a top 40 ranked Nigeria in an overtime thriller.
Day two was a little less dramatic, as results. came out as expected with the higher ranked teams handily winning all their games. The one exception here is Uganda who beat Nigeria, but the team Nigeria brought was clearly not the same one that powered them to their ranking.
The third day was another exciting one, featuring a few unexpected wins and matchups between four of the top teams, three of which had also participated in the World Cup.
This was one of the more exciting qualifying rounds we’ve had the pleasure of witnessing, and we know the next window will get even more intense as each win ends up meaning that much more. The continent is in excellent hands with players, coaches and federations who are actively seeking to improve their national teams and be crowned the best of Africa.