4 wins for the “White Basket” in the “International Unity”

The Director of the National Basketball Teams, Rashid Al Naqbi, revealed four gains achieved by the national team during its participation in the Unity International Championship, which concluded yesterday, despite the “Whites” losing all its matches and coming in last place. These gains, he described as “far from the results”, are represented in compensating for the absences of some of the team’s stars, and giving the young players opportunities to gain exposure within the preparation plans before the final stage of the qualifiers for the Asian Cup next November, in addition to exposure to different high-level schools, and finally, improving the scoring rates of the national team players.

Al Naqbi told Al-Emarat Al-Youm: “We entered the tournament without calculating the results, and we focused primarily on giving all our players, especially the young players, an average of more playing minutes, which would benefit them in gaining experience in strong confrontations against an elite group of foreign professionals included in the tournament teams.”

“The national team list included six players between the ages of 15 and 23, in addition to giving them an average of playing minutes that will later serve to reduce the gap separating the substitutes’ bench from the main players, which will give the technical staff additional options in terms of quantity and quality when we face the Lebanese and Bahraini teams in the second window of the final stage of the Asian qualifiers, during which they seek to return to the Asian classification level (A), and compete for the qualifying cards for the World Cup tournaments,” he explained.

Compensation for absences

Al Naqbi said that the national team participated in the Al Wahda Championship, with the continued absence of two important players in the pivot position, namely Qais Omar and Mamadou Mohamed, who had not recovered from their injuries, in an opportunity that allowed the young players to get their chance to be on the field, namely: Hassan Abdullah, Aziz Mubarak, Hussein Khaled, Mohammed Al Hashemi, and Hamed Abdul Latif, in addition to Salem Abdullah (15 years old), who is the youngest in the history of the national team’s participation list.

Higher minute rate

Al Naqbi stressed that the national team’s technical staff focused on giving the young players an average of playing minutes, even greater than what they get at their clubs, which contributed to strengthening the elements of harmony between them and the main players on the one hand, in addition to contributing to these young players gaining more self-confidence, which would later serve, when the national team’s ranks are complete, in obtaining a substitutes’ bench that is close in level and performance to the main players.

Different schools

Al Naqbi said: “The matches that the national team played against different schools revealed strengths that we must focus on later in the team’s performance, especially the ability during the first half of the matches to keep up with teams that have in their ranks elite elements of the national teams of their countries, in addition to high-caliber professionals, and this was evident in the performance of the “Whites” whether against Al Ittihad Alexandria, Kuwait SC of Kuwait or Al Karkh of Iraq.

Registration rates

Al Naqbi stressed the improvement in the national team players’ scoring rates, compared to the “Whites’” participation in the Al Dhafra International, which concluded early this month. He said: “The scoring efficiency has improved, reaching 55% in two-pointers, and 40% in three-pointers, in addition to the free throws, which recorded the best rate in the preparation stages and events in which we participated since the William Jones Championship last July, reaching 66%.”

“Al-Annabi” outperforms “Al-Abyad” and secures seventh place

Al Wahda Club team secured seventh place in its international championship, after the “Al Annabi” team defeated the national team with a score of (97-89), the day before yesterday, at the “Mubadala Arena” hall.

The match started with a close level, with the first quarter ending in a tie (25-25), before Al-Wahda was able to gradually pull away and decide the match in its favor, with its players gaining the upper hand in the results of the second and third quarters, then the fourth quarter, with scores of (22-21, 24-20, and 26-23).

On the Al Wahda side, American professional Maron Gordon shone, scoring 30 points, 11 rebounds, and five assists, while the title of best scorer in the match went to national team player DeMarco Dickerson with 41 points, 15 rebounds, and four assists.