Ahead of the second window of the Afrobasket Qualifiers slated for 19th-21st February 2021 in Kigali, Rwanda, Uganda national men’s senior basketball team, Silverbacks have continued with their routine drills ahead of the event proper.
The local based players who were recently summoned for training do their drills on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at Africa Bible University (ABU) in Lubowa.
“Right now we are still concentrating on players getting back in game mode. The fitness level is not bad,” Coach Mandy Juruni who’s handling the local based contingent together with Coaches Andrew Tendo and Brian Wathum said.
“We’ve been having training sessions since towards end of last year and this is just a continuation of those sessions that we had. We are now at a stage where we want to concentrate a lot on our game plays; that way we will be well prepared when we get into the camp (later on) and we’ve everyone training together,” Coach Juruni added.
In the first window of the qualifiers, Silverbacks picked two wins from three games having triumphed against Cape Verde, Morocco but losing against hosts Egypt.
However, albeit a fairly good display on the first phase of the qualifiers, Coach Juruni has warmed against any form of complacency.
“Second round is always tough…But guys are always focused in sessions and are working hard so mentally, physically we are prepared. We are not comfortable where we are and we still believe we can do more and we are always going to push it to the limit,” Juruni added.
Coach Juruni also revealed that defence is one of the things they work on in each training session.
However, prior to the event, Head Coach George Galanopolous and foreign based players will join the team in Kigali.
Silverbacks are in Group E alongside Egypt, Morocco and Cape Verde.
There are five qualifying groups and the top three from each group and a wildcard will form the 16 teams that will qualify for the FIBA Afrobasket 2021 in Rwanda from August 24 to September 5.
Summoned local based players;
1. Jimmy Abraham Enabu (Team Captain) 2. Tonny Drileba 3. Benjamin Komakech 4. James Okello 5. Joseph Ikong 6. Titus Odeke 7. Stanley Mugerwa 8. Innocent Ochera 9. Fayed Bbale 10. Ceaser Kizito 11. Ivan Muwhezi 12. Peter Obleng
