This year’s Afrobasket U18 qualifiers were held in Cape Town South Africa. With Mali winning the final over Cameroon it is time to break down some of the standouts.
The Tournament MVP was Youssouf Mamby Traore, a 17-year-old 6’10 combo big from Mali. Averaging 12.8 points and 16.2 rebounds with a respectable 2.7 assists. He was a dominant, game-changing force, who unfortunately is a terrible offensive player shooting only 39.1% from the field. In an ideal world; maybe he puts things together and can help a NCAA or Euroleague team as a dominant rebounder like Kris Humphries but his NBA upside doesn’t seem to be there.
Tournament All Stars
In addition to Traore 4 other players made the Tournament All Stars. There was an argument for Mali’s Sekou Ousmane Bagayoko to be their best player. The 6’8 16-year-old Forward was a good athlete and defender but like Traore, he greatly struggled with efficiency, with 30/27/59 shooting splits but on a respectable 15.3 points per game. A defensive stud who can’t shoot, he reminded me of Josh Okogie but with less ‘splash’ defensive stock numbers.
Angola’s Aginaldo Neto came into the tournament after a good showing in the BAL tournament. The NBA Academy 18-year-old was supposed to be the best player in the tournament and probably was. A 6’2 Guard who was a good scorer with 16.7 points on 40% shooting from 3 and a respectable 3.8 assists reminded me of Dennis Schröder with the ability to be a good driving and scoring forward who could make some jumpers. He lived up to expectations here.
Morocco’s Rayane Solhi is an absolute confident monster. The 6’6 17-year-old Wing averaged 18.3 points on 46.6% from 3 on a healthy 9.5 attempts per game. He was also a ridiculous athlete with 4.5 steals per game and a few nice posters. He has extreme confidence like a Mario Hezjona. I doubt this is the last we hear from him as a draft prospect.
The Final All-Star is Amadou Seini the 18-year-old 7’1 Pivot out of Cameroon who averaged a 12 point and almost 16 rebounds double-double while shooting 57.3% from the field and an insane 4 blocks a game! If any of the bigs from this tournament make the league my bet would be on Seini in a Bismack Biyombyo rim protector specialist role.
Other Stand Outs
Rwanda’s Sean Williams Mwesigwa led the tournament in Points per game with 20.7 and in total 3s but the boy shot 30.6% on those attempts. The 6’3 guard reminds me a bit of Ben Gordon and could carve out a good role on a college team and should have a decent career bouncing between the G-League and the NBA. At 16 years old though there is a lot of hope for him to get more efficient.
As someone who grew up in Nigeria, the d’Tigers were obviously who I was rooting for. Their best player this tournament was probably Azeez Olaitan Sulaimon an 18-year-old 6’7 Forward who filled up the stat sheet with 10.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.2 assists and an absurd 5 steals a game. Those numbers stand out as a great all-around forward like Thad Young however his efficiency was atrocious with 35/14/50 shooting splits so it might never happen for him.
All in all, it was a great tournament, with some good performances from the top players and a few breakouts that could change the landscape of African Basketball.