Teenage trio in Angola’s preliminary squad for OQT
LUANDA (2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments) - Angola's newly-appointed head coach Carlos Dinis on Thursday announced a 17-player preliminary squad for the 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament
LUANDA (2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments) - Angola's newly-appointed head coach Carlos Dinis on Thursday announced a 17-player preliminary squad for the 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in Belgrade.
The Southern Africans will open their preparations on Monday with all but two players - Eduardo Mingas and Braulio Morais - who featured at AfroBasket 2015 in Tunisia, where they finished runners-up and as a result secured a place in the OQT.
| Angola 17-player preliminary squad for 2016 FIBA OQT | |||
| Felizardo Ambrosio | Olimpio Cipriano | Armando Costa | Gerson Domingos |
| Bruno Fernandes | Roberto Fortes | Gerson Goncalves | Valdelicio Joaquim |
| Valdir Manuel | Islando Manuel | Reggie Moore | Carlos Morais |
| Yanick Moreira | Edson Ndoniema | Leonel Paulo | Hermenegildo Santos |
| Silvio Sousa | |||
Prior to the announcement, questions had been raised as to whether or not Yanick Moreira would accept an invitation to represent Angola after being ruled ineligible to play for local club Petro Luanda, leading to him playing for Murcia in Spain's ACB League.
Serbia is an excellent team, but we won’t back down. We are going to compete. - Dinis
In the meantime, Dinis brought in some fresh legs including a trio of 17-year-old players in Silvio De Sousa, Bruno Fernandes and Valdir Manuel who all featured at the 2014 FIBA U17 World Championship and currently play collegiate basketball stateside.
"These players are the future of the national team," Dinis told FIBA.com. "We have to integrate them now so they can feel the senior team’s environment. I hope they can work as hard any other player on the team.
"I have worked with Yanick since he was a little boy. Our relation is good, and I hope to have him on board."
At the OQT taking place in Serbia's capital of Belgrade from 4-9 July, the former African champions will go up against the host nation and Puerto Rico in Group A. Only the winner of the six-team event will earn a berth for the Rio Olympics.
"As I always said we are going to Serbia to compete. With all due respect, we are not going to the OQT to make up numbers. Twenty years ago we went to the [1992] Olympics to play well. Nobody expected us to beat Spain and we did. So, anything is possible."
"Serbia is an excellent team, but we won't back down. We are going to compete," Dinis said.
Beginning on Monday, Angola will hold a week-long training camp in Luanda before heading to Madrid, Spain, where they are set to play at least five warm-up games.
FIBA