Which teams are likely to flop at Sprite Ball Championship

If you have  been following the exploit of teams in the Sprite Ball Championship, you’ve already seen, heard and read plenty about Team Mfantsipim, Keta Senior High, Prempeh College, Koforidua Secondary Technical School and the handful of other teams with legitimate hopes of escaping the group stage and competing for medals.

But what about the rest of the field?

And by the ‘rest of the field’ I’m referring, of course to those poor, helpless squads that are about to have their hats handed them on the court in Accra.

After all, someone has to be served up as a fodder for favourites’ inevitable floor-wiping characters.

With eight out of 16 entrants bound for the knockout phase, it takes some serious effort to not advance out of the group stage.

So which teams in the field are most likely to get walloped in the weeks to come?

Ghana Lebanon School is one of such squads in the capital, and one of the 16 teams most likely to go winless before bowing out.

They don’t look like a team that has played together for a long time and could crumble under a hugely anticipated competition which requires depth, energy and total focus.

One simply should not expect too much from GLISS in the next edition, not in a competition which could see them battle the likes of Mfantsipim, Accra Academy, Ketasco, Presec and Legon amongst others.

Tema Senior High managed to sneak into the championship after they secured qualification in the Greater Accra Regional zonal group few weeks ago.

They can actually boast a few names that Ghanaian basketball fans might recognize. Most notably Moses, Ozigy and Paulus.

That collection of talent that helped Temasco to reach the national finals would not be enough to reach the knockout phase, not to talk about winning the title.

Congratulations to Aquinas for earning a spot in the finals. Too bad the capital-based school team isn’t likely to do much on the basketball court to acquit itself of the honour.

Accra Academy are making only their second appearance in the prestigious competition and will need to dig deep if they are to rub shoulders with teams that have encrypted their name in gold plate.

They won their zonal qualifying competition comfortably but I’m afraid that might not be enough for them.

Having said that all the teams whose ability have come into question could prove critics wrong and state a case for themselves.

The finals take place at the El-Wak Sports Stadium and the Aviation Social Centre on the 4 and 5 of January, 2013 respectively.

But before the finals, the X’mas Ball Fiesta will rock fans at the Aviation Social Centre on the 24th of December.