Afrobasket beckons for Silverbacks
Fit Again: Captain Jimmy Enabu recovered from an ankle injury in time to lead the Silverbacks in their quest for a place at the Fiba Afrobasket due August in Kigali, Rwanda.. PHOTO | COURTSEY
What you need to know:
- That is the best case scenario. It’s also a testament of how well the national basketball team has performed during the qualifiers whose first window was held last November.
Uganda has never beaten Egypt. If that were to change today in Monastir, Tunisia, Silverbacks will be one of the 16 teams at the Fiba Afrobasket this August in Kigali, Rwanda.
That is the best case scenario. It’s also a testament of how well the national basketball team has performed during the qualifiers whose first window was held last November.
The Silverbacks won two out of three to move within one victory of a third successive appearance at the Fiba Afrobasket. Today’s opener against Egypt is the first of three games over the next four days.
Cape Verde and Morocco are the other teams in group E. The task remains simple – win one – just one. Of course no one is getting complacent. Silverbacks want to win every game.
In fact, with everyone pulling in the same direction, the theme from the training camp ahead has been about how to improve the team’s defence having conceded 284 points, the highest of all the 20 teams.
That focus on defence will be greatly tested against Egypt who beat Uganda 96-77 in the previous qualification window.
“Our defence is something that we need to do and the coach is going to make sure we get it done. Now it’s our job to apply everything he implemented,” noted Ishmail Wainright who returns to the team having starred with a tournament best 21.3 points per game in Alexandria, Egypt last November.
The SIG Strasbourg small forward is again joined by the other foreign based players in Eric Rwahwire, Robinson Opong, John Deng Geu and Arthur Kaluma.
Deng Geu and Kaluma were the last to join the Silverbacks camp whose chemistry has often been heralded by players and management alike.
“I feel amazing and blessed. Being with a group guys that brought me in as a brother. Being adopted feels amazing.
“Having guys like Mike (Schmitz), coach George (Galanapolous), the captain Jimmy (Enabu), Tony (Drileba) and Titus (Lual). They helped me out like I’m helping them out,” he added.
The collective effort has been important.
During the first window, Opong and Enabu averaged 19 and 17.7 points respectively. To that, Wainwright added 5.7 assists and Enabu 5 assists per game.
Wainwright also led the team with 8.3 rebounds. Deng Geu had eight boards per game. Aware of these details, Kaluma, Ceasar Kizito and Fayed Bbaale have been added to offer variatiom.
“We think he’ll help us a lot on the rebounds. All the three games that we played we lost rebounds by double digits,” assistant coach Mandy Juruni said of the 6ft 7i Kaluma.
“It’s very hard at that level not to be a good rebounding team,” he added.
