FIBA World Cup will be richer for the “Black Antelopes” this time as well. Angola will be at the global competition for the sixth time in a row. The presentation of this national team brought to you by “Basketball Sphere”.
The team led from the bench by the Spanish expert Josep Claros managed to put out enormous pressure, both from their own expectations and from the public. Draw for the World Cup made them happy to some extent. For the next stage of the competition, Angola will battle against the trio – Dominican Republic, Philippines and Italy.
FIBA World Cup – Angola: Previous editions and the best results of the national team
Angola is coming to the FIBA World Cup for the ninth time. All performances of the “Black Antelopes” happened in the last ten editions. The only time they missed the Mundobasket in the years behind us was in 1998.
They achieved their greatest success back in 2006, when they finished ninth. In the group stage, Angola achieved three wins and the game where Germany won only after three overtimes will be remembered forever. Then, Dirk Nowitzki scored 47 points with 16 rebounds and four assists for the favored team.
Four years earlier, when Yugoslavia celebrated in Indianapolis, Angola ended its performance as the 11th team in the world, which is their second best result in the history books of the national basketball team.
FIBA World Cup – Angola: Road to Mundobasket
Angola came to Mundobasket through the African qualifiers. Central African Republic, Guinea and Ivory Coast were their rivals in the first phase. With four triumphs and two defeats, they jumped the first step as the second-placed team behind the “Ivory Country”.
In the second stage, Angola continued to play very well. In the six games played, they beat Uganda, Nigeria and Cape Verde twice each. In both clashes against Cape Verde, the opponent had Walter Tavares in its roster.
FIBA World Cup – Angola: Roster and focus on those who are expected the most
Certainly, the first name of the national team is the NBA center, Bruno Fernando. He made 39 appearances last season. He played for the Houston Rockets for the first part of the season, and then he was on the roster of the Atlanta Hawks.
He spent ten minutes on the court on average with 3.6 points and 3.5 rebounds per game. It’s not a statistic that makes your head spin, but I guess it’s clear to everyone how significant a factor can be in the Angola jersey.
Yanick Moreira and Silvio De Sousa also have Angolan passports and with them in the roster, quality would be significantly improved. However, none of them have appeared recently for the national team and it is not certain that they will be at the Mundobasket.
The quartet of Childe Dundao, Gerson Goncalves, Gerson Domingos and Teotonio Do was the only one to make all 12 appearances for the national team during the qualifiers. The first of them often used to lead the team in scoring.
Antonio Monteiro is also someone who is no stranger to scoring 20 points against a rival, without too many turnovers. Jilson Bango in the center position can be an adequate replacement in the paint for the already mentioned Fernando.
There is also forward from the French Championship, Kevin Kokila. He logged significant minutes for Bourg last season. Islando Manuel and Abou Gakou can serve as solid substitutes from the bench. What the Spanish coach Claros insists on is the youth of the national team. Along with Kokila, Dimitri Macon, Eduardo Mingas Francisco, Sadraque Nganga and Bamba Cisse will fight for the selected 12. All of them are under 21 years old, so the intention of the first coach is quite clear.
FIBA World Cup – Angola: A word more about head coach – Josep Claros
The Spanish expert born in 1959 has a rich coaching “Curriculum Vitae”. He worked on five different continents. Only Australia and the “continent of polar bears” – Antarctica – are still missing. He reached 15 finals with different teams that he led, including all teams.
Josep Claros is the only coach on the planet in all sports to win medals on four continents as head coach.
He is also known for earning a lifetime suspension from Canada’s NBL league. Halifax Rainmen were scheduled to play the seventh game of the final against Windsor Express back in 2015. Coach Claros refused to let the team play a “deciding game” after a massive fight broke out in training earlier that morning before the match itself.
The title went to the rival, and the Spanish coach was suspended from Canadian basketball forever. In addition to the suspension, he received a financial penalty of 10 thousand US dollars.
![Josep Claros](https://basketballsphere.com/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Josep-Claros.png)
FIBA World Cup – Angola: Expectations
It can be said that the Angolan national team achieved success by qualifying for the World Cup. Draw for this year’s Mundobasket placed them in a group with Italy, Dominican Republic and one of the three hosts, Philippines.
It is clear that Italy is considered as main favorite for the first place in the Group A. Angola can look for their chance against the remaining two selections, and it will be very difficult to advance.
A nice team led by an unusual coach will certainly not give up without a fight. Simply, this is not in the mentality of the “Black Antelopes”.