Tunisia can’t rest on laurels, says hero El Mabrouk

TUNIS (FIBA AfroBasket 2017) - Tunisia are currently the No.2 team in Africa, according to the latest FIBA World Ranking Men, but shooting guard Mourad El Mabrouk warns they can’t rest on their laurels.

They want to be better.

“The results speak for themselves and our country is now on the international basketball map thanks to coach Tlatli.” El Mabrouk

Since El Mabrouk came up with a game-winning three-pointer that rescued FIBA AfroBasket 2015 hosts Tunisia from an imminent and premature elimination in the Eight-Finals against Morocco a year ago, a lot has changed for the North Africans.

Not only Tunisia claimed a bronze medal at the latest FIBA Africa’s flagship competition, but they also competed reasonable well at the Turin FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in July. And as a result, they climbed two places to become the second highest team in Africa in the FIBA World Raking Men behind new champions Nigeria.

Yet, the Club African guard insists a lot more needs to be done, especially after the resignation of head coach Adel Tlatli.

“We deserve to be in the position that we are now but the new ranking means we have to do a lot better,” the 29-year-old told FIBA.com.

“Everyone likes to be recognised somehow. We have finished third at AfroBasket 2015, we played well at the OQT, and we have shown a lot of progress over the past few years. Is this enough? Certainly not. We want to be better than that.

Tunisia lost both OQT games against Italy and Croatia

“The trouble with African teams in world stage competitions is that we can only play for 20 minutes, and that’s not good enough to compete at a high-level competition. Italy came up with a taller and stronger team than us, but technically we are the same level.”

With Tlatli officially signing off in December and rumours a foreigner coach joining in, none really knows whether the future coach will be able to replicate or to improve Tlatli’s legacy.

Under the 58-year-old, Tunisia moved from a modest team to become a powerhouse in Africa, especially after beating Angola at the FIBA AfroBasket 2011 final and qualify for the London Olympics 2012.

“For sure coach Adel [Tlatli] changed the landscape of basketball in Tunisia and my generation was the one that benefited the most from his intense work,” El Mabrouk said. “The results speak for themselves and our country is now on the international basketball map thanks to coach Tlatli.”

Asked to describe his shot that gave Tunisia a chance staying alive at AfroBasket 2015, El Mabrouk dismissed any hero accolades.

“For sure that was the biggest shot in my basketball career. I don’t know how I managed to stay so calm to hit that shot, but we couldn’t lose that game. I will remember that shot for the rest of my life.

“Of course, we were under pressure because most of us had never played in front of 15,000 fans. It was a frightening atmosphere for most of us. We couldn’t stop thinking ‘What if something goes wrong’. We lost to Angola in semis but we couldn’t disappoint our people in the Third-Place game against Senegal.”

“All we have to do now is getting ready for next summer’s AfroBasket in Congo.”

FIBA