{"id":22463,"date":"2022-07-20T08:32:16","date_gmt":"2022-07-20T08:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile"},"modified":"2022-07-20T08:38:19","modified_gmt":"2022-07-20T08:38:19","slug":"basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile","title":{"rendered":"Basketball: A closer look at Rwanda\u2019s U-18 team profile"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>For its fifth appearance, Rwanda\u2019s U-18 national team will join a pool of 10 national teams across the continent to contest for the sport\u2019s top prize in Africa.<\/p>\n

The tournament commonly referred to as Afrobasket is slated to run from August 4 through 14 in Madagascar\u2019s capital, Antananarivo.<\/p>\n

Rwanda ascends to the tournament as champions of FIBA Africa Zone 5 after they grabbed the sole ticket at the expense of Tanzania and Uganda in an impressive fashion.<\/p>\n

The youngsters claimed the title of the biennial regional tournament after a 84-49 blowout of Tanzania in their final game.<\/p>\n

If the performance is anything to go by, the team is proving to target a podium finish, but all the work is not cut.<\/p>\n

In particular, the team will have to lock horns with continental powerhouses including reigning champions Mali.<\/p>\n

Other teams include Egypt, Senegal, Guinea, Benin, Tanzania as well as host Madagascar.<\/p>\n

Guided by Rwanda\u2019s tactician Yves Murenzi, who also doubles as the head coach of top flight out fit, United Generation Basketball (UGB) since 2013.<\/p>\n

Here is a closer look at the team profile.<\/p>\n

FIBA Ranking<\/b><\/p>\n

The latest FIBA rankings put Rwanda\u2019s U-18 national at the 51st spot globally but 9th in Africa.<\/p>\n

This is attributed to the growing culture of the game in the country.<\/p>\n

Rwanda in recent times has become the hub of African basketball. Several major tournaments have been hosted in the country from BAL, Afrobasket to FIBA Basketball World Cup African Qualifiers.<\/p>\n

Participation in FIBA U-18 Africa Championship<\/b><\/p>\n

It has been five years since the national team contested in the same tournament.<\/p>\n

In 2018, the team finished in 6th place. The appearance followed another impressive performance in 2016 as the 5th top team.<\/p>\n

Qualification to 2022 FIBA U18 African Championship<\/b><\/p>\n

Rwanda secured this year\u2019s FIBA U18 African Championship by emerging winners of the Zone 5 qualifiers.<\/p>\n

The country has qualified for their fifth FIBA U18 African Championship appearances. The others were in 2010, 2012, 2016 and 2018. Rwanda hosted the 2016 edition of the tournament.<\/p>\n

Player to watch out for<\/b><\/p>\n

Dick Rutatika Sano was crowned the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the tournament in a two-legged round-robin format played in Kampala.<\/p>\n

The team captain, Sano, will be one of the stars to look out for given his performance in the qualifiers.<\/p>\n

He alongside Ghislain Nubaha contributed a combined 19 points each.<\/p>\n

In 2019, he featured for the Rwanda U-16 team in Cape Verde where his team finished 5th place.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Rwanda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. For its fifth appearance, Rwanda\u2019s U-18 national team will join a pool of 10 national teams across the continent to contest for the sport\u2019s top prize in Africa. The tournament commonly referred to as Afrobasket is slated to run from August 4 through 14 in Madagascar\u2019s capital, Antananarivo. Rwanda ascends to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":22462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,28,18],"tags":[760,763,758],"class_list":["post-22463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-rwanda","tag-rwanda"],"yoast_head":"\nBasketball: A closer look at Rwanda\u2019s U-18 team profile - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For its fifth appearance, Rwanda\u2019s U-18 national team will join a pool of 10 national teams across the continent to cont ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Basketball: A closer look at Rwanda\u2019s U-18 team profile\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For its fifth appearance, Rwanda\u2019s U-18 national team will join a pool of 10 national teams across the continent to cont ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-20T08:32:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-20T08:38:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_8-62d7bee96fceb.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"847\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"491\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Basketball: A closer look at Rwanda\u2019s U-18 team profile\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-20T08:32:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-20T08:38:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile\"},\"wordCount\":424,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_8-62d7bee96fceb.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Rwanda\",\"Rwanda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile\",\"name\":\"Basketball: A closer look at Rwanda\u2019s U-18 team profile - Rwanda\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_8-62d7bee96fceb.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-20T08:32:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-20T08:38:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"For its fifth appearance, Rwanda\u2019s U-18 national team will join a pool of 10 national teams across the continent to cont ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_8-62d7bee96fceb.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_8-62d7bee96fceb.jpg\",\"width\":847,\"height\":491,\"caption\":\"Basketball: A closer look at Rwanda\u2019s U-18 team profile\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Basketball: A closer look at Rwanda\u2019s U-18 team profile\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/\",\"name\":\"Rwanda\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Basketball: A closer look at Rwanda\u2019s U-18 team profile - Rwanda","description":"For its fifth appearance, Rwanda\u2019s U-18 national team will join a pool of 10 national teams across the continent to cont ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Basketball: A closer look at Rwanda\u2019s U-18 team profile","og_description":"For its fifth appearance, Rwanda\u2019s U-18 national team will join a pool of 10 national teams across the continent to cont ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile","og_site_name":"Rwanda","article_published_time":"2022-07-20T08:32:16+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-07-20T08:38:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":847,"height":491,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_8-62d7bee96fceb.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Basketball: A closer look at Rwanda\u2019s U-18 team profile","datePublished":"2022-07-20T08:32:16+00:00","dateModified":"2022-07-20T08:38:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile"},"wordCount":424,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_8-62d7bee96fceb.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Rwanda","Rwanda"],"articleSection":["all news","homepage-english","Sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile","name":"Basketball: A closer look at Rwanda\u2019s U-18 team profile - Rwanda","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_8-62d7bee96fceb.jpg","datePublished":"2022-07-20T08:32:16+00:00","dateModified":"2022-07-20T08:38:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"For its fifth appearance, Rwanda\u2019s U-18 national team will join a pool of 10 national teams across the continent to cont ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_8-62d7bee96fceb.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_8-62d7bee96fceb.jpg","width":847,"height":491,"caption":"Basketball: A closer look at Rwanda\u2019s U-18 team profile"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/basketball-a-closer-look-at-rwandas-u-18-team-profile#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Basketball: A closer look at Rwanda\u2019s U-18 team profile"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/","name":"Rwanda","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}