KIGALI (Rwanda) - The reigning FIBA AfroBasket champions Tunisia carry an air of humility around them so much that one would forget that they are the direct opposite on court in full armor of their talent and gameday experience over the years.

Ahead of the FIBA AfroBasket 2021 Qualifiers starting on November 25 in the Rwandan capital, the North Africans are going on quietly with their preparations. No pomp. Just the usual routines with focus on the basics while paving a way to stay at the top of African basketball. 

Veterans Makram Ben Romdhane, Mohamed Hadidane, Mokhtar Ghyaza and Mourad El Mabrouk stand out from the rest for their consistency and level headedness over the years even when faced with the biggest of adversaries. 

Romdhane has played for Tunisia at five AfroBasket editions

The objective is clear - to defend their title and to do that, they must finish among the top three teams in Group A that also has Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Madagascar for them to qualify for the final tournament in Kigali next year. 

Tunisia head coach Dirk Bauermann told FIBA.basketball that, "When you are the defending champions, you always want to repeat this but we understand how difficult that will be because African basketball has gotten so much better and stronger in the last 10 years that it is extremely difficult to win the AfroBasket twice in a row especially with an aging team."

"A lot of our guys are older. We have four guys that are 34  years old. That does not make it any easier but we have also been able to incorporate some younger players that are 23, 24 years old into the team and they have done really well. They have given the older guys energy and the intensity of light and our older and more experienced veterans have been able to share their knowledge with the younger generation so it has been a really good mixture."

L-R: Ahmed Addami, Achref Gannouni, Hosni Ilehi and Oussama Marnaoui

The above quartet, according to Bauermann, have brought a new energy and youthful vibe to the team as they seek to achieve their target. 

"We feel that athletically as well as in terms of their skillset, they can play at the highest level in Africa. What they don't have because the generation of the 30 year olds was so strong, they don't have much experience at that level so as much as we are going to try to win every game, we also have to give them experience now that they need in order to play well in AfroBasket."

"We brought a couple of big guys that we feel have a chance to become really good but they are not there yet. They need time but again, you do not get better from just practice. You have to play and feel what it is like in order to grow so they might play great but they have pre-confidence no matter what happens as long as they play hard and fight."

Bauermann is familiar with African basketball

Tunisia face Madagascar in their first game on November 27 before taking on DR Congo the following day and lastly they will be up against Central African Republic. 

Bauermann emphasized that, "I have coached three national teams including Germany where we went to three World Cups and we have played against Angola twice, we have played against Senegal so on and so forth so I am very familiar with African basketball and that is why I am saying that for me, African basketball has gotten so much stronger and so much better."

"It is very difficult now more than probably it was 10 years ago to beat the best teams in Africa. I do not think that we are the favorites at all. I think that there is a handful of teams that could win the championship. Maybe we are one of them if everyone is healthy which when you have an older team is always a problem."

"With a high altitude in Kigali, it is not good for an older team. It is always better for a younger team and it also depends on whether or not, we will have Michael Roll and Haithem Saada."

Bauermann and his team have their work cut as they begin the journey to qualify for Africa's premier basketball competition that will be held in Rwanda from August 24 to September 5, 2021.

FIBA