Mali and the French-Canadian hurdle to London 2012

SHEFFIELD (African Message) - Realistically, Mali will need an extreme offensive game improvement in order to win games and make it London 2012.
 
Nevertheless they are optimistic. 

If France and Canada want to play beyond group D of the 12-team Olympic Qualifying Tournament for women (OQT) and become one of the five teams to qualify to London 2012 they will have to overturn Mali’s Olympic dream.
 
The message comes not from Bamako, but from Bydgoszcz in Poland, where its dispatcher Mali forward Djenebou Sissoko currently plays for local club Artego Bydgoszcz.
 
Both Canada and France have not appeared at an Olympic since the 2000 Sydney Games, while Mali did play at the Olympics four years ago, and they desperately want to do repeat the experience.
 
However, in a recent chat Sissoko and I agreed that Mali has a tough opposition, not impossible to beat. But she insisted that they “are going to fight to get qualified to the Olympics and play against the best in London.”
 
The background of Mali 's national team is somewhat multifaceted.
 
This is a team that played more minutes per game than any team at the 2010 FIBA World Championship, thanks to three overtimes, against Korea, Argentina and Senegal.
 
For Sissoko and Co their resilience paid only a single victory, against continental fellows Senegal.
 
At the same tournament they finished in the top-four rebounding teams, well ahead of their OQT opponents France and Canada, behind only Russia, Australia and USA.
 
They averaged 2.6 blocks and stole the ball seven times every forty minutes.
 
Some may ask why have they won only one game in five at the world championship, and have lost all five games at the 2008 Olympics if they show some defence qualities.
 
Mali’s offensive game is far from being their strongest point.
 
During the world championship, two years ago, they turned the ball over more often than any of the sixteen teams with 22.2 TO per game.
 
They finished with the worst three-point percentage at the tournament, with just 16.7 per cent.
 
When things expected to improve at last year AfroBasket’s semi-final against Angola, Mali missed all ten three-point attempts.
 
The same scenario occurred in the third-place play-off against Nigeria. Perhaps, ordered not to ruin home-fans hopes, Mali attempted only two three-point shoots, missing both. This time they won the game essentially in the paint.
 
To me, France and Canada may become serious hurdle to Mali if no improvement is made.
 
Defence and rebounding win games, I have learned, but you have to be reasonable efficient offensively.
 
Sissoko, though, believes there is plenty of room for improvement.
 
“Sure we have to play our best to win games,” she said. 
 
International experience is equally abundant within Mali national team. The likes of Nare Diawara, Hamchetou Maiga-Ba, Djene Diawara, Naignouma Coulibaly and Djenebou Sissoko, are all based either in Europe or USA, getting significant competitiveness.
 
Among those players, they count promising 6ft8in 19 year-old center Astan Dabo, who keeps showing signs of improvement.
 
At this time of the year, Mali national team could have been calmly planning preparation games for their consecutive Olympic appearance.
 
It could, because Mali failed direct qualification to the London 2012 after hosting the 2011 FIBA Africa Championship for Women, finishing third thanks to a 71-62 win over Nigeria.
 
Instead, they turned their attention at last week’s OQT draw to find out that France and Canada are the contenders on their way to the remaining five places still available to the Olympics.
 
The OQT will take place in Turkish capital of Ankara from 25 June to 1 July.
 
Next step for the 2007 FIBA Africa Championship for Women champions is the appointment of the team’s head coach due late this week.
 
Whether Herve Coudray, who took over the team from Jose Ruiz, two years ago, will be re-appointed it is unknown.
 
“I have no idea, who the head coach will be. I just wish we have a very experienced and good coach to help us fulfill our potential to win games,” Sissoko said.
 
Mali had beaten Angola in previous four games between the sides, but on 1st October last year the new African champions inverted the history and celebrated a 56-51 victory, before beating Senegal in the finals.
 
Angolan secret weapon Sonia Guadalupe came off the bench to have game-high with 14 points, to upset Mali before their fans.
 
“We underestimated Angola. When we realised the damages that that game was causing to us, it was too late.
 
“We made mistakes that a team with our ambition should have not,” said Sissoko who led her country with 16.4 points per game.
 
When Mali steps in Ankara, in June, the alumni at US Union University will be celebrating her 30th birthday. Best anniversary present? “I had not thought about it, but London could be the perfect birthday present to me,” she said.
 
Group D of the OQT is the bronze group. All three teams finished third at their respective FIBA Zones, last year, and the trio is well aware of meaning “eliminated”.  This makes this group interesting to follow, principally to see what they learnt from the past.
 
Sissoko says that they fill fight a lot. I would say that fight is an admirable quality, but whoever is appointed Mali head coach in the next few days, will have to excel his/her offensive game skills to support Sissoko and the rest of the team’s dream to London.
 

Julio Chitunda
FIBA

FIBA’s columnists write on a wide range of topics relating to basketball that are of interest to them. The opinions they express are their own and in no way reflect those of FIBA.

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