Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco: Who will grab the tickets to the 2024 FIBA U18 AfroBasket for Men and Women?

 

MONASTIR (Tunisia) - Three nations countries from the Maghreb region are set to do battle to qualify for the 2024 FIBA U18 AfroBasket tournaments in Monastir, Tunisia. 

Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco  will compete from July 11 to 14 in the coastal city of Monastir in the 2024 FIBA AfroBasket Qualifiers (both genders) for Zone 1 countries. 

Games are scheduled to be streamed on FIBA's YOUTUBE CHANEL. 

The winners will represent the zone at the 2024 FIBA U18 AfroBasket in South Africa next month.

Except for Algeria, both Tunisia and Morocco featured in the 2023 FIBA U16 African Championships held in Monastir, where Mali won the women's tournament while Guinea clinched the men's event.

Tunisia finished fourth at 2023 U16 African Championship for Women held on home soil

Tunisia, the host country for this event, faces a major challenge in both the men's and women's competitions.

Indeed, its two national teams are aiming to put an end to the drought that has seen them miss the last two editions of the U18 AfroBasket.

With this in mind, the coaches started their preparations very early, as Hichem Ez-Zahi, head of the men's U18 team told FIBA.basketball, pointed some time ago.

Hamza Masrouki

"The youngsters have completed three training camps this year, which have enabled them to express themselves within the framework already in place."

Tunisia's men's national team is aiming, as coach Ez-Zahi again emphasized, to return to the U18 AfroBasket, having missed out on the 2020 and 2022 editions. To do so, they'll need to overcome two North African rivals Algeria and Morocco.

Do they have what it takes to overcome these two opponents? 

"We won't be playing the kind of composed game we know from Tunisia. We're going to rely on a faster, more forward style," added Ez-Zahi.

The Tunisians will be able to count on a group that has grown together since the U16 AfroBasket on home soil, in 2023.

Idriss Toumi, Elyas Zaabar, and Hamza Masrouki will form the cornerstone of the Tunisian game.

However, they will have to be wary of Algeria, who are aiming for a second consecutive appearance at FIBA Africa's flagship youth tournament.

The Algerians, who finished seventh in 2022, also got down to work early on, under the leadership of coach Tedj Eddine Sahraoui.

He is expecting stiff competition and has prepared his squad accordingly. "African basketball continues to improve, not only in the senior category, but in all categories. For our part, we'll be putting all our experience and mastery into working with these qualifiers for the next AfroBasket," he is quoted as saying to the Algerian local media. 

Morocco, for their part, take to the starting line with the same ambition as their two opponents.

The last time the kingdom appeared in the competition was in 2008, when they finished eighth.

 

This time, however, the coaching staff have decided to give them every chance of success by holding a series of training camps ahead of the Qualifiers.

WHO TAKES THE TICKET IN THE WOMEN'S EVENT?

Just like their men counterpart, hosts Tunisia will have to overcome rivals Algeria and Morocco to advance to the U18 AfroBasket.

Tunisia did not make it to the 2022 edition, and are therefore aiming to return to a competition they last contested in 2016.

Algeria finished 6th at the 2022 FIBA U18 Women's AfroBasket

Opposite the Tunisians will be Algeria. Sixth at the last AfroBasket U18, they too are aiming for a return to the African elite.

Finally, Morocco, who are new to the competition, will be looking to join the teams already qualified at the end of the four-day event.

FIBA