Is this a new dawn for Cameroon after winning Africa’s Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament?

 

ABIDJAN (Cote d'Ivoire) - When Cameroon shocked Africa last August during the Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament in Lagos, Nigeria, it reminded everyone that the Central African country can exceed expectations when you least expect them to on international stage.

Cameroon's successful campaign in the Lagos six-team showpiece immediately posed a question. Was that 4-0 record and a place in the 2024 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) a new dawn for Cameroon basketball?

"Winning the Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament in Lagos last August was one of the biggest achievements that Cameroon basketball has ever made on the continent," Cameroon head coach Alfred Aboya told exclusively to FIBA.basketball.

Cameroon celebrate their qualification to the 2024 OQT

Cameroon beat Guinea, Mali, reigning African champions Tunisia and upset front-runner Senegal in the tournament's decider encounter.

Aboya went on explaining how they pulled it off: "We are number 67 in the world according to the last FIBA ranking, and every [most] (EDITOR's note) team that we played in that tournament ranked ahead of us.  Winning that tournament was definitely one of our biggest achievement."

The former UCLA standout and Cameroon national player added: "It's a new dawn for Cameroon basketball in the sense that not a lot of people expected us to win it, only the guys in the locker room knew that they had a chance. They went out there, they battled it out, they fought game after game, and, at the end of the tournament we were able to get the ticket. We are now about to go to the OQT; We know our group, we know who we are playing and we'll prepare to write another chapter in Cameroon basketball."

Against Senegal, Cameroon were braver, smarter and played with the purpose and desire to return to the OQT for the first time since 2008

A case in point of Cameroon's ability to shock the African basketball fraternity was the 2007 FIBA AfroBasket held in Angola where future NBA player Luc Mbah-a-Moute inspired his country to a Second-Place finish behind hosts Angola.

Cameroon's first-place finish in the African Pre-OQT means they will be among the 24 countries vying for a spot in the Olympics in Paris next year (2 July to 7 July).

Players like Jeremiah Hill, Jordan Bayehe and Paul Eboua powered Cameroon to a new dawn in their basketball. A dawn that will see them fight some of the best teams in the world for a place in the Paris Olympics in August.

"Since I became the head coach of the Cameroon national team, I baptised that team as the party crashers because Cameroon ranked 67 in the FIBA ranking. We were so far down that we never got invitation to those parties. Next party is in Riga and we are going to crash that party and get our boarding pass to Paris 2024," Aboya, who also serves as head coach at NBA Academy Africa, insisted.

In the Latvian capital, Cameroon will go up against Brazil and Montenegro in Group B.

For the first time in the country's basketball history, Cameroon won a major continental competition

The Central African nation has always been among the strongest countries in continental basketball. The talent they have given to the global game says that they should be among the strongest.

The likes of Ruben Boumtje Boumtje, Luc Mbah, NBA champion Pascal Siakam, NBA MVP Joel Embiid and Christian Koloko and Ulrich Chomche represent the past and present of players born in Cameroon and gave their talents to the world.

In 2007, Cameroon profited from some of their talent, and the hope is that some of their top players will feature to help the country's Olympic cause.

With highly rated youngsters like Chomche, who featured for Cameroon in the qualifiers in Lagos, the future can only be bright.

Also, expectations will be high that this group of Cameroon players can qualify for the Olympics.

"As a former player of the Cameroon national team, now the head coach of that team, winning the Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament in Lagos was a humbling experience for me," Aboya admitted, adding: "Humbling in the sense that as a player I played in the 2008 OQT in Athens, but, unfortunately we didn't win any game [0-2], and that experience left a bad taste; We felt that we could have won a game or two. We missed an opportunity.
                                                   Alfred Aboya is seen here in action against Croatia during the 2008 OQT in Athens, Greece

"Fast forward to 2023 and with the qualification against big African teams - Tunisia, Senegal, Nigeria, Mali - it was a humbling experience and proud moment for me. Being able to get that OQT boarding pass was huge," Aboya pointed out.

It may be unthinkable, but Cameroon's basketball history says it is achievable. 

FIBA