Tinaye Agere
Deputy Sports Editor
THE gulf that exists between Zimbabwe and some regional and continental powerhouses in basketball might not be as big as initially feared.
Zimbabwe and Harare champions JBC had some decent performances at the recent Basketball Africa League (BAL).
The team performed much better than any representative side from Zimbabwe at the African tourney, as it reached the East Division Elite 16 round.
It was, however, at that stage that coach Addison Chiware and his men faltered, losing all their group games against perennial BAL campaigners and Mozambique giants Ferroviário da Beira (55-75); City Oilers of Uganda, who beat them 81-74; and Indian Ocean Island powerhouse COSPN of Madagascar (73-78). But the three encounters were tightly contested matches.
Prior to that, JBC had topped their regional qualifying round with victories over UNAM University (70-55), Munali Suns (85-50) and one loss to Dolphins (65-68).
The difference between qualifying for the BAL and their disappointment at the East Division Elite 16, as Chiware puts it, boiled down to logistics.
“The Road to BAL Qualifiers were certainly an eye-opener,” Chiware said.
“Starting off in Gaborone for the preliminary rounds, we realised that we could actually dominate the region, and one of the key takeaways, from both rounds, is that we need to learn to manage our logistics much better going forward. The road (travel) has a huge effect on how the boys perform, as we had flawed starts to both tournaments in Botswana and South Africa.
“If you look at how the boys performed at both levels, we had slow starts, but played better as the fatigue wore off.
“In Botswana, we narrowly lost our first game (against Dolphins) and then bounced back to win the next two to progress,” he said.
He spoke of how the logistical shortcomings negatively impacted the team at the Elite 16 stage. JBC went into the game without Tyjhai Byers, their top performer during the preliminaries.
“We failed to acquire one of our foreign-based players, a point guard, due to logistical challenges and went into the Elite 16 very much short-handed,” he said.
“Dirty politics and late releases may have had a hand in us failing to get our preferred point guard and, as such, we ended up having power and small forwards now playing centres and point guards.
“They did well, as we lost three close games, but those were not their natural positions.
“Had we had all our players available, the results could have been different.”
Chiware is convinced Zimbabwe have bridged the gap between them and African heavyweights.
“We have actually encroached into their territory.
“What needs to continually happen, locally, is for us to have more exposure,” added Chiware.
“We need more competitive games against these teams and arrange more international friendlies against some of these nations.
“Our players need to run shoulders with some of these teams and get used to the high-tempo match-ups.
“Preparations are another key component when it comes to narrowing the gap between us and the rest of the continent.
“We were at par with the field when it came to game preparedness, but the logistical element is the area we were found wanting.”
It was not all gloom and doom, as some of the JBC players stood out for their individual performances.
Centre Tashinga Chiimba had good numbers, as he averaged 29 minutes per game, during which he scored 14.7 points and six rebounds.
Tafadzwa Tela played only three out of JBC’s six matches but averaged 15 points and five rebounds per match.
The duo of Dyvonne Pfachi and Saul Phiri played in both tournaments and had some good minutes (26) on court.
Small forward Phiri finished with 10 points and four rebounds per match, while point guard Pfachi averaged seven points and six rebounds throughout the qualifiers.
Online Reporter