African NTs participating in training camps...

[Federoy]

Over the past few years, I've noticed a significant shift in the training procedures by African NTs. In years past, Angola would be the only country scrimmaging against serious foreign opposition or participating in overseas tournaments as a part of their normal training camp. But recently, I've noticed more and more African countries expanding their training schedules to include teams from outside their region, whether played in Africa or on foreign soil. This year for example, Cameroon is playing in a four nations tournament in China, Nigeria participated in the Stankovic Cup in China and is now currently in Florida (USA) sparring against Venezuela, Senegal is scrimmaging against France's under 20 NT, and Tunisia has sparred against Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Jordan, respectively. African basketball is in need of growth, so I view the expanded competition as a positive sign that African basketball is developing in the right direction. Certainly there are some countries that don't have the financial resources to train properly, but nonetheless, it's good to see other countries follow Angola's blueprint by playing non-African competition to better prepare themselves against broader international competition, which in turn, they can use the experience they've gained for the upcoming Afrobasket.