ANG - Angola yet to name national team coach

LUANDA (Afrobasket 2011) - Angola are to continue with their tradition of having a national team coach that has experience in their BAI domestic league.

Portuguese Luis Magalhaes has yet to renew his contract with the African champions, and there are reports in France that former French national team boss Michel Gomez has been offered the job.

"It is all speculation," said Toni Sofrimento, the Angolan Basketball Federation director manager, to FIBA.com.

"I am the director manager of the national team and I know nothing of these stories."

For the past three decades, the Angolan basketball team has been managed by either Angolans or Portuguese coaches with experience in the Angolan game.

Angolans Vladimir Romero, Alberto Carvalho, Vitorino Cunha and Portuguese Mário Palma and Luis Magalhaes are among the head coaches who have helped the national team succeed internationally.

"Currently the federation is focused on the BAI Basket league, nothing else," Sofrimento said.

"After the national championship, we'll focus our attention on the Olympic games.

"Then we will announce our coach."

Magalhaes, in fact, still has every chance to sign a new deal.

He led the team last year to two wins at the FIBA World Championship in Turkey.

"We are pleased with our coach, even though we have not renewed [the contract] it yet," Sofrimento said.

"We are not planning to recruit any coach from outside our national championship."

Angola have 10 gold medals at the last 11 Afrobaskets.

They were 11th out of the 16 teams at the 2002 FIBA World Championship and in the expanded 24-team FIBA World Championship five years ago, Angola finished ninth after a narrow Eighth-Finals defeat to France.

Last summer, Magalhaes led Angola to victories over Jordan and Germany, but they were beaten in the Eight-Finals by the United States.

Julio Chitunda
FIBA