Adingono Leads Camerron in Olympic Qualifying Tournament

Lazare Adingono (pictured), an assistant with the Canisius men's basketball team, will lead the Cameroon National Team into the 2008 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament, which is set to run from July 14-20, in Athens, Greece. The 12-team qualifying tournament will send three teams to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Cameroon starts the tournament in Group D, and opens play July 14, when the team meets Croatia. Cameroon qualified for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament by finishing in second place at the 2007 FIBA Africa Championships. The silver medal at last year's FIBA Africa Championships marked the first national basketball honor for the country since 1974.

Adingono led his squad through a two-week training camp in Lyon, France where the team played “friendly games” against professional teams from France. Adingono believes the training camp provided a good start for his squad, as his native country attempts to qualify for the men's basketball tournament at the Olympic games for the first time.

“I think our guys did a great job showing up every day and challenging themselves and each other to get better,” Adingono said. “The guys have done a great job picking up the things we want to do offensively and defensively and I'm very pleased with the work ethic of the entire team.”

Cameroon is also scheduled to meet Puerto Rico in pool play. Those two teams will face-off July 15, in Athens. The top-two teams from each of the four pools will advance to the single-elimination quarterfinal round, which is set to begin July 18.

The 12-team qualifying tournament features a number of big name players, including Dirk Nowitzki (Germany), Samual Dalembert (Canada), Carlos Arroyo (Puerto Rico) and Juan Jose Barea (Puerto Rico). Cameroon's roster features former Georgetown center Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje, Manhattan guard Patrick Bouli, and former Rhode Island guard Parfait Bitee.

Fans can follow Cameroon's attempt to qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games by logging onto www.athens2008.fiba.com.

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