Can FUS Rabat upset Petro in the opener of the Kalahari Conference?

A three-time Basketball Africa League (BAL) participant and a league debutante will mark the start of the BAL Season 4 when the Kalahari Conference gets underway on Saturday, March 9th at SunBet Arena in Pretoria, South Africa.

The inevitable questions are whether or not Petro de Luanda can return to winning ways or if FUS Rabat can add more misery to the Angola champions.

This is a clash that could go either way.

A dominant force back in the Angolan domestic league, Jose Neto’s Petro de Luanda are currently on a 0-2 skid dating back to Season 3.

After an impressive 2023 Nile Conference campaign where they finished 5-0 and stunned eventual BAL champions Al Ahly in front of their home fans in Cairo, Petro looked set to go all the way to the Championship Game.

However, unexpected losses AS Douanes and Stade Malien in the semis and third-place games relegated the two-time African champions to their worst result in the BAL.

Rabat, on the other hand, arrive in Pretoria highly motivated to try and question Petro’s powerhouse status and fight for a place in May’s Playoffs in Kigali, Rwanda.

A quick look into both rosters and coaching staff indicate that Petro de Luanda and FUS Rabat have what it takes to secure the Kalahari Conference top two places.

Talking to the bal.nba.com, FUS Rabat guard Jonathan Jordan said: “Hopefully we finish first [in the conference]. Everybody is going to say the same thing; second is good as well. We just don’t want to put ourselves in a position where we are third and depend on the results of the other conferences. We want to handle our business and that starts on Saturday against Angola [Petro de Luanda].”

FUS Rabat qualified to the BAL Season 4 thanks to a 3-2 mark in the qualifying round last November while Petro de Luanda are one of the six teams that qualify automatically.