Africa-Press – Rwanda. APR Basketball Club coach and players have talked about their aspirations for the upcoming Nile Conference of Basketball Africa League (BAL) 2025 which tips off at BK Arena on Saturday, May 17.
APR will be up against Nairobi City Thunder from Kenya, MBB from South Africa, and Al Ahli Tripoli from Libya as the battle for two tickets which are up for grabs for the BAL Playoffs gets closers than ever.
Coach James Maye Jr. and his players shared their Nile Conference ambitions with Weekend Sport. Here is what they had to say.
Ready to go! — coach James Maye Jr
Under the American coach, every player feels important at APR. They are ready to deliver whenever given a chance.
Maye took over the team when every member of the roster was down after a disappointing performance in the Sahara Conference in Dakar, Senegal, last year.
After guiding them to yet another championship, the players started to believe again. They put the past behind and worked on their mental strength which is one of the aspects that helped them finish the regular season with just one loss in 16 games.
Prior to the Nile Conference, Maye Jr said that, “Everybody in the team has got great energy right now and they are confident in what they have been doing.”
“I think our chemistry, our flow of how we have to work in the BAL has really been improving over the last week or so, especially with the changes of players we’ve made. So I think everybody’s adapting well, and I think we’re ready to go.”
Here to change the script—captain William Robeyns
Robeyns was part of the APR roster that failed to qualify for the playoffs of the BAL 2024 after finishing at the bottom of the Sahara Conference in Dakar, Senegal.
The whole team returned home with heads down, upset and disappointed to become the only Rwandan side to fail to make it past the Conference games.
It took time to overcome the situation but they bounced back. Now back to the conference games, not any of the players want to such have an unwanted experience.
And, now playing before the home crowd, hopes are high that they can regain their fans’ trust and finish the Nile Conference on a good notte.
“The thing we have here in this team that I don’t think REG and even APR had last year was the weapon coming from everywhere. So, we’re not going to have a star system. That was the problem last year,” Robeyns said.
“It can be one player today and the other the next day, so yeah, it’s going to be tough. Everybody’s excited. We’re looking forward to what’s ahead of us.”
Obadiah Noel’s ‘unfinished business’
Star point guard Noel Obadiah says he had unfinished business to with APR at BAL-courtesy
For point guard Obadiah Noel, he again noted that he has unfinished business at the BAL. He pretty thinks he has a lot more to give to the team than he did last year when an injury ruled him out of the Sahara Conference.
“I feel like last year I finished business, and now I’m back, so let’s do it,” he said.
And for Combo guard Chasson Randle, the team will now be “taking it one day at a time and one game at a time once we get there.”
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