Enabu: We are a better outfit
Ready To Roar. Silverbacks captain Enabu believes the preparations in Egypt will give the team a chance to perform better. PHOTO | JOHN BATANUDDE
What you need to know:
- Old & New. Apart from shooting guard Adam Seiko, the rest of the team made it to Egypt. Jonathan Komagum is the latest addition to the Silverbacks set up and had a run out with the team.
The Silverbacks touched base in Kigali, Rwanda yesterday after a pricelesss two-week training camp in Egypt.
The goal, now, is to get wins starting with the game against Mali on Friday as they look to progress to the next round of qualifiers on the road to the 2023 FIBA World Cup.
Having gone into the first round with barely any preparations, the Silverbacks will be a lot more prepared after playing three trial games in Egypt.
The team lost all the three games to Rwanda, Jordan and Egypt but team captain Jimmy Enabu would rather focus on the things they were able to work on and not the results.
Good preparations
“Having camp gave us an opportunity to get better,” Enabu told Daily Monitor before the team left Egypt for the Rwandan capital Kigali.
“Having the team together for a few days before the competition puts us in a better position to compete,” he added.
In the two weeks, though, the foreign based lot of players kept coming in bits and some missed the first two trial games.
Ishmail Wainright and Emmanuel Mugenga had to play a big chunk of the Egypt game having missed the first two.
“We’ve had a lot to cover in a short time but we’ve used it the best way that we could.”
Apart from shooting guard Adam Seiko, the rest of the team made it to Egypt.
Jonathan Komagum is the latest addition to the Silverbacks set up and had a run out with the team.
No injury scare
From the three games, there were injury scares for three players.
James Okello strained his ankle in practice while Tonny Drileba and Kieran Zziwa limped off against Jordan and Egypt respectively.
The three, according to team physiotherapist Ram Nyakana, are in no danger of missing any of the three games.
Uganda defeated Cape Verde 77-74 in the first round but the win was sandwiched by losses to Mali (66-77) and Nigeria (69-95), leaving Uganda third on the log.
George Galanopoulos and his charges must at least maintain third place or move up the table after the three games in Kigali to progress to the next round.
