DAKAR, SENEGAL - Former Louisville men's basketball forward/center Anas Mahmoud will be participating in the inaugural season for the Basketball Africa League, the league announced Friday as part of roster announcements for all 12 participating teams.
The 7-foot, 215-pound big man made the 13-man roster for Zamalek, a club based in his home country of Egypt. Zamalek qualified by winning the Egyptian Super League - one of six leagues where the champion clinches an automatic berth into the BAL.
The BAL was established as a joint effort between the NBA and FIBA, and is the premier basketball league on the African continent. Each season, clubs must qualify for the league by winning designated qualifying tournaments, similar to how the UEFA Champions League is structured.
It will tip off with an 18-game group phase with the 12 teams divided into three groups of four. During the group phase, each team will face the three other teams in its group once. The top eight teams from the group phase will qualify for the playoffs, which will be single elimination in all three rounds.
Zamalek falls into Group C, alongside GS Petroliers (Alegeria), Ferroviario de Maputo (Mozambique) and AS Douanes (Senegal). They will play Maputo on Monday, May 17 at 11:30 am EST; GSP on Wednesday, May 19 at 3:00 pm EST; and AS Douanes on Saturday, May 22 at 11:30 am EST. All games will be broadcast on ESPN+.
From 2014 to 2018, the Cairo native made 41 starts and 119 appearances for Louisville. In his senior season, he averaged 6.8 points and 5.0 rebounds in 22 starts and all 36 games for the Cardinals. After going undrafted in the 2018 NBA Draft, he spent some time in the NBA Summer League with the Memphis Grizzlies, before signing with Zamalek later that year where he has been ever since.
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