2024 Sahara Conference - PREVIEW

The Basketball Africa League (BAL) resumes on Saturday, May 4 at the emblematic Dakar Arena where four contenders will fight for the remaining three spots for the playoffs scheduled to take place later this month in Kigali, Rwanda.

The four teams will play each of their three opponents twice over the course of the nine-day competition.

All twelve games will be broadcast on the BAL website, NBA app, NBA.com and live streamed on the league’s YouTube channel. Additionally, a comprehensive coverage of the conference will be available on the BAL’s social media platforms.

The entire 2024 Sahara Conference campaign, which marks the end of the regular season, will run until Sunday, May 12.

In this article the bal.nba.com brings you reasons why you should follow this season’s Sahara Conference action.

EVERY GAME MATTERS

The four Sahara Conference head coaches are unanimous in believing that every single game matters, regardless of any potential talent disparity between the teams.

A classic example of the importance of why winning the first games is teams fear reaching the later stage of the conference only to depend on another teams’ results to determine whether they advance to the playoffs or not.

Rivers Hoopers head coach Ogoh Odaudu says: “We don’t want to put ourselves in a situation where we have to count points. We want to put ourselves in a situation where we are comfortable going into the last games knowing that we have a foot in Kigali already.”

UNMISSABLE MATCH-UPS

When Chris Obekpa (AS Douanes) and Ater Majok (US Monastir) last faced other in the BAL season 2, there was a titanic battle of giants in the paint.

Although Majok’s US Monastir saw off Obekpa’s SLAC 76-55 the duel among two of the greatest BAL shot blockers entered the league’s history books as one of the most fiercely-contested games.

From dunks to blocks on each other, the Obekpa vs Majok is one of the matchups to watch out for.

Jean Jacques Boissy (AS Douanes) and Chris Crawford (US Monastir) were one of the reasons why AS Douanes caught everyone by surprise by reaching the 2023 BAL Final where they came up short against eventual champions Al Ahly SC.

However, Boissy and Crawford will now be on opposing sides of the basketball court in the Sahara Conference.

Two remarkable shooters and slashers, Boissy and Crawford are capable of doing things that might look impossible to most mortals.

UNMISSABLE GAMES

Every game matters and there are has countless reasons to keep you glued to your screen, but you don't want to miss this. The hosts AS Douanes and US Monastir have unfinished business from last season that saw the then reigning champions, US Monastir bow out of the league.

When the two sides last met in 2023 at the very Dakar Arena, US Monastir not only ended up on the losing side of the clash but they also were eliminated from playoff contention. It was the first time that a BAL reigning champion failed to advance to the elimination round.

PLAYERS TO WATCH OUT FOR

Besides, Majok, Obekpa, Crawford and Boissy there’s an extensive list of talented and game-changing players to watch out for, including: Will Perry and Devine Eke (Rivers Hoopers), Abdoulaye Harouna and Ibrahima Thomas (AS Douanes), Adonis Filer, Jean Jacques Nshobozabyosumukiza and Mohamed Nasser (APR) and Oussama Marnaoui (US Monastir).

FANS

BAL’s recent history has shown that whenever AS Douanes took to the floor there was a unique Senegalese way of celebrating basketball with sections of fans chanting and dressing in traditional attire in support of their heroes.

Usually fans travel dozens of kilometres to cheer on AS Douanes and witness some of the best performers shining in the BAL.

WHAT HAS BEEN SAID AHEAD OF THE 2024 SAHARA CONFERENCE

Bush Wamukota (APR center): “We are probably one of the best teams in the conference, which we are here to prove. We came to the tournament with very high hopes and very high expectations for ourselves and our fans back home. I can confidently say that we just don’t want to be in the semi-finals we are here to win it all, that’s what our goal is.”

Will Perry (Rivers Hoopers): “Every single game matters, and every single point matters. Sometimes it’s going to come down to point-difference. And sometimes when you are playing in a game you don’t really think about the points, you just think about the win-loss, maybe in the last five minutes you relax a little bit but that could cost you.”

Mamadou Gueye (AS Douanes Head Coach): “The pressure is always there, but it’s a positive type of pressure, which I have already experienced with the national team and in the local league. The most important thing is that we stay locked in and make sure we are disciplined.”

Mohamed El-Kerdandi (US Monastir Head Coach): “For now we are not thinking about winning the trophy; first we need to make it to Kigali, then we’ll think about the title race. Every single game matters. We are going to take one game at a time.”