South Sudan men's national basketball team

Not to be confused with South Sudan Basketball Federation.

South Sudan

FIBA ranking	23 (26 November 2024) [1]
Joined FIBA	2013
FIBA zone	FIBA Africa
National federation	South Sudan Basketball Federation (SSBF)
Coach	Royal Ivey
Nickname(s)	Bright Stars
Olympic Games
Appearances	1
FIBA World Cup
Appearances	1
Afrobasket
Appearances	1
Home Away
First international
Unofficial Power 86–84 South Sudan   (Juba, South Sudan; 13 July 2011) Official   Egypt 87–76 South Sudan   (Cairo, Egypt; 12 March 2017)
Biggest win
Tanzania 60–115 South Sudan   (Nairobi, Kenya; 17 January 2020)
Biggest defeat
South Sudan 83–115 Serbia   (Quezon City, Philippines; 30 August 2023)

The South Sudan men's national basketball team is the national basketball team representing South Sudan. It was established in May 2011, and became a member of FIBA in December 2013. ^[2] They are nicknamed the Bright Stars.

The most recently founded national basketball team in FIBA, South Sudan has already played at one AfroBasket tournament in 2021 and the 2023 FIBA World Cup, and at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

History

2011-19

The team played its first unofficial match in Juba against Ugandan club champions Power on 13 July 2011. Power won the match 86–84. ^[3]

In 2016, the team played in an exhibition tournament named Indigenous Basketball Competition in Vancouver, Canada. ^[4]

On 9 January 2016, it was announced by the South Sudan Basketball Federation that Jerry Steele would become the new head coach of the men's national team for preparation of the 2017 AfroBasket competition. Through the agreement Steele would be under contract until the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. ^[5]

In the 2017 AfroBasket qualifiers, the team was placed in Zone 5 Group A, with Egypt, Kenya, Rwanda. South Sudan played its first official international game on 12 March 2017, against Egypt in Cairo. ^[6] They would lose to Egypt by 11 points (87–76) in the first match on 12 March. Two days later the national team got it first victory in group stage against Kenya by 2 (68–66). The next day, the team relieved its next loss by ten (80–90) to Rwanda, later placing them in the Classification game. On 12 March, the team would beat Kenya in the Classification game in OT (84–89).

Coach Steele and the South Sudan Basketball Federation parted ways by mutual agreement on 3 October 2017.

On 7 November 2017, Scott Catt was appointed to be the new head coach of the men's national team by the South Sudan Basketball Federation. Madut Bol, son of the late Manute Bol, was also named as assistant head coach of the men's national team. ^[7]

2020-present

In November 2020, former NBA All-Star Luol Deng became the president of the SSBF. ^[8] He also briefly coached the team. In September 2021, Royal Ivey, assistant coach with the Brooklyn Nets, became the head coach of the team. ^[9] At AfroBasket 2021, South Sudan made its debut at a major tournament and reached the round of 16 after defeating Uganda and Cameroon in the preliminary round. In the round of 16, South Sudan beat Kenya, in the quarterfinals the team lost to defending champions Tunisia.

South Sudan (black) vs China (white) at the 2023 World Cup.

In the following 2023 FIBA World Cup qualification games, the Bright Stars impressed and had an unbeaten record in the first round (6–0), beating the defending African champions Tunisia twice and qualifying for their first World Cup in the third round with two games left. In the second round, again coached by Royal Ivey, they had another successful streak in order to qualify for South Sudan's first-ever World Cup in 2023. ^[10]

On August 28, South Sudan earned its first World Cup victory with a dominant win over China in Quezon City, Philippines. ^[11] South Sudan qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris by finishing as the best African team in the World Cup, beating Angola in their final game. This will be their first-ever Olympics. ^[12]

In exhibition play leading up to the 2024 Paris Olympics, South Sudan played the United States and lost by just one point, 100–101, to a team led by four former NBA MVP winners, including LeBron James, Joel Embiid, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant. ^[13] Marial Shayok scored 25 points for South Sudan. ^[14]

On the opening day of the Olympics, South Sudan stunned Puerto Rico for their first Olympic victory in the first game of group play, winning 90–79. ^[15] Carlik Jones led the way with 19 points. ^[16] The Bright Stars lost their two following games to the United States ^[17] and Serbia, and thus did not advance past the preliminary stage. ^[18]

Competitive record

Olympic Games

Summer Olympic Games record
Year	Round	Position	GP	W	L
2016	Did not enter
2020
2024	Preliminary round	9th	3	1	2
Total	Best: 9th		3	1	2

Record against other teams at the Olympics

Country	W–L
Puerto Rico	1–0
United States	0-1
Serbia	0-1
Total record	1-2
Overall historic score	261-278

Last updated: 1 August 2024

FIBA World Cup

FIBA Basketball World Cup record		Qualification record
Year		Round	Position	GP	W	L	GP	W	L
2014		Did not enter					AfroBasket served as qualification
2019							Did not enter
2023		Classification round	17th	5	3	2	12	11	1
2027		To be determined					To be determined
Total		Classification round	17th	5	3	2	12	11	1

FIBA AfroBasket

AfroBasket record		Qualification record
Year		Round	Position	GP	W	L	GP	W	L
2015		Did not enter					Did not enter
2017		Did not qualify					4	2	2
2021		Quarter-finals	7th	5	3	2	13	8	5
2025		To be determined					To be determined
Total		Quarter-finals	7th	5	3	2	17	10	7

Team

Current roster

Roster for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

A 50-player roster was announced on 30 April 2024. ^[19] It was cut to 25 players on 3 June 2024. ^[20] The roster was announced on 24 July 2024. ^{[21] [22]}

South Sudan men's national basketball team – 2024 Olympics roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Name Age – Date of birth Height Club Ctr. PG 4 Carlik Jones 26 – (1997-12-23)23 December 1997 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) Partizan F 5 Nuni Omot 29 – (1994-10-03)3 October 1994 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) Ningbo Rockets C 6 Khaman Maluach 17 – (2006-09-14)14 September 2006 2.16 m (7 ft 1 in) Duke Blue Devils SF 7 Bul Kuol 27 – (1997-01-10)10 January 1997 2.04 m (6 ft 8 in) Sydney Kings SF 8 Kuany Kuany  (C) 30 – (1994-07-08)8 July 1994 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) Free agent F/C 9 Wenyen Gabriel 27 – (1997-03-26)26 March 1997 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) Maccabi Tel Aviv PF 10 JT Thor 21 – (2002-08-26)26 August 2002 2.10 m (6 ft 11 in) Charlotte Hornets SG 11 Marial Shayok 29 – (1995-07-26)26 July 1995 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) Shandong Hi-Speed Kirin PG 12 Jackson Makoi 24 – (2000-07-03)3 July 2000 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) Cairns Taipans PF 13 Majok Deng 31 – (1993-03-01)1 March 1993 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) Tasmania JackJumpers SG 14 Peter Jok 30 – (1994-03-30)30 March 1994 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) Ottawa BlackJacks G 15 Sunday Dech 30 – (1994-01-01)1 January 1994 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) East Perth Eagles	Head coach Royal Ivey [23] Assistant coach(es) / Luol Deng Fortune Solomon Legend (C) Team captain Club – describes last club before the tournament Age – describes age on 27 July 2024

Head coaches

The following is a list of all head coaches of South Sudan:

Coach	Tenure	Major tournaments
Deng Lek & Bil Duany	2011–2016	–
Jerry Steele	2016–2017	–
Scott Catt	2017–? [24] [25]	–
Ajou Deng	2020 [26]	–
Luol Deng	2020–2021; 2023 [27]	–
Royal Ivey	2021–present	2021 AfroBasket 2023 World Cup 2024 Olympics

References

1. "FIBA Ranking Presented by Nike". FIBA. 26 November 2024. Retrieved 26 November 2024.
2. Basketball: South Sudan is FIBA's 54th African member – News – StarAfrica.com Archived 28 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
3. "Power the history boys". New Vision Online. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
4. "South Sudan looking to promote the country through basketball". FIBA.basketball. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
5. "Steele put in charge of South Sudan's men's national team – FIBA.basketball".
6. "Egypt off to flying start with win over South Sudan in FIBA AfroBasket 2017 Group F Qualifier opener". FIBA.basketball. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
7. "South Sudan Basketball Coaches – TeamSouthSudan". teamsouthsudan.com. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
8. "NBA star Deng elected President of South Sudan Basketball Federation". insidethegames.biz. 27 November 2019. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
9. "South Sudan Coach Royal Ivey: "The Talent Runs Deep in Africa"". Boardroom. 17 May 2021. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
10. "History made as South Sudan outlast Senegal to qualify for the 2023 World Cup". FIBA.basketball. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
11. Ninrew, Chany (28 August 2023). "South Sudan sink China in FIBA World Cup but rough road ahead". Eye Radio. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
12. "'So surreal': South Sudan beat Angola to qualify for Paris 2024". Reuters. 2 September 2023. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
13. Joseph, Samuel (21 July 2024). "Team USA survives scare in Olympic warmup, scraping past South Sudan 101-100". CNN. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
14. "Maccabi adds South Sudan star Marial Shayok," Eurohoops, November 13, 2024,
15. "Unforgettable first: South Sudan overcomes Puerto Rico with team effort". www.fiba.basketball. 28 July 2024. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
16. "South Sudan stuns Puerto Rico for first-ever Olympic hoops win". ESPN. 28 July 2024. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
17. "Adebayo-led bench helps U.S. topple South Sudan". ESPN.com. 31 July 2024. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
18. "Bogdanovic, Jokic hold off South Sudan, pull Greece to QFs". www.fiba.basketball. 3 August 2024. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
19. "50 names, huge potential for South Sudan Olympic team". fiba.basketball. May 2024. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
20. @SSBFed (3 June 2024). "SSBF social update" (Tweet). Retrieved 5 June 2024– via Twitter.
21. "South Sudan announces final roster for Paris Olympics". BasketballNews.com. 24 July 2024. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
22. South Sudan Basketball [@SSBFed] (24 July 2024). "Olympics Roster" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
23. "Team roster: South Sudan" (PDF). fiba.basketball. p. 10. Retrieved 25 July 2024.
24. "interview : Scott Catt, the new head coach for the South Sudan National Basketball Team". 21 July 2018. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
25. "South Sudan Basketball Coaches – TeamSouthSudan". teamsouthsudan.com. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
26. "South Sudan coach Deng: We want to make things right". FIBA.basketball. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
27. "Luol Deng combines president role with head coaching duties at South Sudan". Eurohoops. 25 November 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2021.

External links

• Sports portal

• Official website
• FIBA profile
• South Sudanese Men National Team 2017 at Afrobasket.com