New recruits boost Al Ahly as they begin Basketball Africa League title defence

With a trusted leader in Ehab Amin, and some last-minute reinforcements that include NBA G League rookie Patrick Gardner, Al Ahly are ready to commence their Basketball Africa League (BAL) title defence on Friday evening as the Nile Conference tips off in Cairo.

Taking on Uganda’s City Oilers in their opener at the Hassan Mostafa Indoor Sports Complex (7pm local time, 9pm UAE), Al Ahly are bidding to become the first repeat champions in the history of the BAL.

Spread across three conferences – Kalahari (March 9-17), Nile (April 19-27) and Sahara (May 4-12) – staged in Pretoria, Cairo, and Dakar, the ongoing fourth season of the BAL will see Africa’s top teams battle for spots in the playoffs and finals, which will take place in Kigali, Rwanda from May 24 to June 1.

“There’s always pressure playing for Al Ahly club, especially as defending champs; everybody expects you to win every game, and probably by double digits. It’s not going to be like that, we know that,” star point guard Amin told The National on Thursday.

“The competition is definitely getting better, year after year, especially this season. A lot of the imports are definitely better than last year’s, even the locals are getting better, so we know the competition and the games are going to be tougher.

“Not to look ahead too far, for the Nile Conference, we’ve got six games in nine days, which is brutal. Coach is probably going to manage a lot of our minutes in some games.”

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This year, the Nile Conference will see the four teams – Al Ahly (Egypt), City Oilers (Uganda), Al Ahly Ly (Libya), and Bangui Sporting Club (Central African Republic) – play each other twice, giving coaches the opportunity to do better