What was noticeable at the last AFCON though was that when Egypt weren't playing, attendances were awful though I think there was a problem of tickets being way overpriced. When Egypt were playing, the stadia were packed. Also major derbies attracted huge crowds like Raja v Wydad (anyone who likes their derbies, I very much recommend this match).
An advantage basketball definitely has is it can be played any time of the day any time of the year in air conditioned arenas. That's noteworthy in Africa. One thing which needs to be aimed for is as big a spread of teams as possible. It's probably unrealistic to expect a team in every country but a cluster of them in certain places isn't spreading the game.
I just hope they avoid the patronising attitude which is all too common in the media (outside Africa) at soccer world cups of "all of Africa is behind whatever random team has progressed deep into the tournament". Why? I'm European, does the media think people like me care if some random European country we have no connection with goes deep in a tournament? Good luck getting an Algerian to cheer for Morocco or vice versa for example. That's maybe a personal peeve though.