African contingent: the Russian national team will play matches against two strong opponents

The Russian men's basketball team will play in Moscow for the first time in almost a year and a half. In June 2023, our team met Belarus twice in the capital's Basket Hall. This time the mini-tournament "Friendship Cup. Russia - Africa" mini-tournament will be attended by the national teams of Tunisia and Libya. The first team is the winner of the last two AfroBasket (2017, 2021), the second team is strong and is now going well in qualifying. After the debacle with Colombia in Perm, the Russian Basketball Federation (RFB) scrutinized the bids of both national teams. As a result, Tunisia and Libya will play with optimal squads.

Experienced and young

Our national team also has a fighting roster. We would like to remind you that after his suspension from international starts, Zoran Lukic decided to seriously rejuvenate the team. At the last training camp, players with no VTB League experience were called up, and the average age of the national team was 23-24 years old. At the beginning of 2024, the Serbian specialist said that the Russian national team would seriously prepare for the Friendship Games, and did not rule out that several experienced players would be included in the application. "The Friendship Games were eventually postponed indefinitely, but Lukic still decided to test his idea in practice.

For the games against Tunisia and Libya, Zoran called up CSKA forward Anton Astapkovic (30 years old), Army center Alexander Gankevich (30 years old) and UNICS guard Dmitry Kulagin (32 years old). The Kazan captain was not included in the final list of 18 players (the roster will include 12 players), but Astapkovic and Gankevich may well play for the national team for the first time since 2022. Also among the experienced players who came to the training camp, it's worth noting Enisey leader Timofey Gerasimov, Pari NN main point guard Alexander Khomenko and UNICS forward Andrei Lopatin, who is gradually finding himself in Velimir Perasovic's system.

There are also some very young guys in the lineup: 19-year-old Mikhail Dulkay (Zenit-2), 18-year-olds Maxim Ogarkov (MBA-MAI) and Lev Svinin (Parma), 17-year-old Ilya Ermakov (CSKA-2). Barring our young talents who are now playing in the NCAA, it is Ermakov who can be called the top Russian talent in men's basketball. Ilya is playing more than 20 minutes per game this Superleague season, and has been a big asset to the Army team: 10.2 points, 4.3 assists, three rebounds, and 1.5 steals per game. If this continues, Ermakov will be promoted to the first team very soon. He has already made his debut for the national team this summer in Perm, scoring seven points in a game against Venezuela.

- Before basketball, I played a lot of sports, including ballroom dancing," Ilya Yermakov told Izvestiya. - But there was a huge desire to play basketball, it outweighed, I still persuaded my mother, and she gave me to the section.

Of course, I would like to see Vsevolod Ishchenko in the national team, who at 19 years old started to play in the starting five of Lokomotiv-Kuban, bravely playing against star opponents. However, Loko ended up letting only two of the six players go to the upcoming training camp: Vladislav Emchenko and Andrei Martyuk.

- We understand Loko's problems," RFB president Andrei Kirilenko told Izvestia. - They have terrible logistics because of the closed airport in Krasnodar, so the players are under additional pressure. Zoran Lukic is in touch with Andrei Vedischev. Together they sorted out which players are most needed for this training camp, and decided on Emchenko and Martyuk. Other guys will heal micro-injuries during this break. There is nothing wrong with that, everything is decided in private. We have individual contact with each club.

African stars

The tournament in Moscow will be held in the framework of the III Russian-African Public Forum, and its organizers, in addition to the RFB, will be the African Business Initiative and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

- We have a big request for tickets for these matches from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from African friends, - continued Andrei Kirilenko. - There will be the ambassador of Libya, many African students who study in Moscow universities. Therefore, some sectors are even closed for sale, as there was a great demand for them. In general, I think there will be a lot of fans, I expect full stands. For us it's a big plus, as we have an opportunity to watch the national team in games with serious opponents. That is, we had a plan A - this is a very young team for the future. And there is plan B - where we gather a team that right now could play in official matches, to solve the problem of reaching one or another major tournament. Now we have such a hybrid lineup, and I'm very interested to understand who will be the leader of this roster.

It should be noted that Tunisia and Libya have all the strongest players in their bids. Of the 12 players from each national team that are coming to Moscow, 11 participated in the Arab Cup of Nations-2024 and in the qualification of Afrobasket-2025. It should be noted that Tunisia is 100% in the qualification for the African Championship. The team led by Mehdi Mary beat Kenya (90:69), Guinea (85:78) and Angola (82:73). Two-time Afrobasket champion Omar Abada averaged 16.3 points in those games. Jauhar Jawadi (11.3) and Oussama Marnaoui (11.0) were also high scorers.

Libya won two out of three matches against title-holders Nigeria (89:82) and Uganda (71:59). The defeat happened in the match against Cape Verde (72:68). Libya's leaders are Mohamed Sadi (17.0 points per game average in qualification), Naseem Ismail Salem (13.5) and Sofiane Hamad (12.3). Yes, all of the above players are playing on their home continent, but in any case, it is unlikely that the hosts will have it easy in the two upcoming matches.

Tournament schedule

November 22

Russia - Libya;

November 23

Libya - Tunisia;

November 24

Russia - Tunisia.