Around 2018-2019, the national senior basketball team was the dream of the Congolese with French coach John Louis Frederic Douaglin at the head.
The DRC surprised Congolese basketball lovers during the 2019 World Cup qualifying match in Cairo against Egypt (77-63), on June 29, 2018.
Despite the non-qualification for the China 2021 World Cup, the DRC will be invited to an exhibition tournament (preparation) in Malaga, Spain to allow the 3 qualified teams to refine their preparations.
Among which, Spain (2019 world champion), the Philippines, the Ivory Coast and the DRC.
The Leopards, made up mainly of players outside the African continent, beat the Philippines in their inaugural match on Friday, August 9, by a score of 82 to 71 points. Before losing in the final against Spain 96-64.
At the end of this tournament, announces the decline of the project of the French coach John Louis Frederic Doauglin.
The Congo Basketball Federation (FEBACO), announces the arrival of the current coach at the head of the Leopards, the Norwegian Eckoff Mathias. He is playing in the 2021 Afrobasket Rwanda qualifiers, while keeping a large number of the starting coach’s athletes. During the first leg, he managed to record 2 victories (Madagascar and the Central African Republic) and one defeat (Tunisia). During the return leg, the Leopards snatch a victory only against Madagascar, but they obtain their qualification ticket following the new formula of the International Federation of Basketball Association (FIBA) Africa which recommends 16 nations instead of 12.
Following this training, the winners of each group automatically qualify for the quarter-finals, while the eight teams that finish 2nd and 3rd in Groups A, B, C and D compete on August 30 and 31. for the allocation of the other four places in the quarter-finals.
Eckoff Mathias’ men will be eliminated, 4th in the final standings after losing two Group A matches at Afrobasket against host country Rwanda and Angola. And beat Cape Verde.
Back to square one.
Jean-Robert Djema / L’INTERVIEW.CD
