Not a good day.
SA started its consolation tournament. The first African team will host next season Africa's cup. This is our goal.
Our opponent was Sakartvelo, a definitely strange match against an opponent who simply did not play first two matches against poor teams - as Maghrib did last season. So, the only information we had were about their roster (many guards, not good in PF/C roles) and TS estimation.
I bet that Sakartvelo would have not played the match with full forces, using a lower attitude to not compromise next matches, also considering the first home field advantage in my mandate. I lost. First (and far bigger) mistake of the day.
I decided to enforce board presence, and use a powerful Look Inside with Mtolo as SF, recalling a well trained Issa as rotation instead of Barnard. There were not many options, as our guards were not in great shape. Kadzamira will be out of the roster for a while at least, and is still 6, Adam had 62' and decreased shape to 6
Mtolo+Issa were expected to give us RB superiority, while I decided not to adopt 32 zone to avoid having a weak spot under attack for the whole game. May be second mistake, but about it I am still convinced that it was not a so bad choice. In fact Pochkua (SF) won the match alone, but otherwise we could have had the two guards with similar percentages, as their passing was not so bad.
The third, true, net mistake was about SG rotation, where Adam should have been replaced by Mbangwa. Unfortunately my first option was to have Mbangwa in SF spot, and after many changes I forgot to set him in the right spot. Apologies, although it would have changed nothing - to me.
I am too sad and angry to tell you match history. Sakartvelo 3-2 zone put a lot of pressure on our Guards. In Q1, Rabutla gave us first advantage with two shots (12-9), then Pochtkua started a lethal showtime (15/21, 45 points, nothing to comment). Since end of Q1, Sakartvelo took the leadership, well sustained by SF great day. Our guys never left the game, even when Sakartvelo scored a +15 maximum advantage. Schartner and Wagana boosted SA comeback from 95-83 to 99-95. At 101-97 we started systematic foul, with no chance to recover.
Juggie Wagana, although not at his top, was our MVP. Schartner is now much more than a simple project of PG, Rabutla had a good day. Kolane played below expectations, and Mtolo was sufficient in attack, horrible in defense.
Team statistics showed a good SA. It's good, it's far better than one season ago (where this defensive behaviour was just a dream), but it's not enough.
Our record is now a poor 0-3.
Tonight, Al Jazair (1-1) will host Puerto Rico in a not trivial match. Tounes lost 90-112 at Singapore and is now 0-3. Ghana (0-2) will have no chance in Uruguay. Senegal was defeated 123-90 at home against Nippon and is 0-3. Maghrib took a hard hit by Russia at home (93-159!) and is 0-3. Let's see so what Al Jazair will do, and go back on track.