Lone Star travelling home without recording a win

Alphonso Kuiah

The All African Games should be an experience to build on for the Liberian national team.The young and inexperienced squad of head coach Allen Jallah recorded five straight defeats in Algeria and had to travel home without a positive outing at the ongoing tournament. While other nations went overseas (Angola went to Brasil , Mali to rance and the Ivory Coast even to the US) , the Liberians stayed at home to practice , and received conditioning problems while playing on the basketball courts in Algeria as the measurements there are under FIBA statutes while the courts at home are significantly smaller. " My players experienced fatigue during the last quarters of the games due to the lack of adequate basketball courts in Liberia", tells us Jallah before departing to Monrovia. Now the national team has to prepare once again for an even bigger event, the Afrobasket 2007 in Angola scheduled for Mid-August. If the preperations are going to be held the same way, the Lone Star risks a bigger debacle then in Algeria as most teams will be flying in their stars from all the professional leagues of the world including the NBA.
Here are the Stats for Liberia at the All Africa Games:

Alphonso Kuiah (-86) 10.2 ppg
Mark Smith (-87) 9.2 ppg
Samuel Malusi Getaweh (196-F) 7.3 ppg
Raphael Quaye (-G-75) 6.0 ppg
John Bing (-90) 4.4 ppg
Marcus Wolo (-85) 4.2 ppg
Samuel Davidson (-85) 4.0 ppg
Alvin Tapeh (-72) 3.0 ppg
Joseph Lackey (-88) 3.0 ppg
Samuel Ndoum 2.6 ppg
Jethro Bing (199-C-84) 2.4 ppg
Varney Tulay (-88) 2.2 ppg