Ooops! How disorganized! And, you cannot tag that to the team itself – you can exempt the players from everything that went wrong at the FIBA Men’s basketball World Cup qualifiers. Uganda Men’s National Basketball team, the Silverbacks, just lost everything. Everything from the game points, to the pride.
The team arrived in Luanda, Angola on Friday morning and later were to face the hosts Angola in a game where they posted 49 against 82 basket points to start their misery during the last leg of the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers on Friday 24 February 2023. The misery could not end at that point, the team went on to suffer despondently on 25th February 2023 against Cote d’Ivoire, who beat them 89-44 at the same venue at City, Arena during game day 11.
More misery was yet to come and on Sunday 26th February 2023, the Silverbacks received another thorough beating on their game day 12 against Guinea. Here, they managed another big points margin damage of 47 points against Guinea’s 88 points. So, the Silverbacks team ended the FIBA World Cup men’s campaign with just one win in 10 games, and bottom of Group E.
This one win came on Saturday 27th November 2021 against eventual qualifiers Cape Verde. The results were 77-74 at game day 2. Cape Verde beat Ivory Coast 79-64 to book the last and fifth African qualification slot to the World Cup. Ivory Coast, Egypt, Angola and South Sudan are the other nations to the World Cup in Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia, from 25 August to 10 September 2023.
But why? Back then in 2021, local basketball Associations federation (FUBA) received funds from NCS to fly to Kigali qualification window for the Afrobasket on the last minute. The team that had not prepared at all went on to finish sixth with their money stashed in the sacks at the last minute.
Come to this just concluded World Cup campaign window. Despite the prior confidence from the players and officials that the team can pull out a surprise, theirs was dodged by ill or even one of the preparations ahead of Luanda campaign. The team whose dream looked almost a reality on the onset of the World Cup Qualification campaign was washed clearly away by little or even none of Government funding interest in Sport!
Starting their second-round campaign in August last year, the Silverbacks reached Abidjan (Ivory Coast), a day before their opening game due to late release of funds. The team did not hold a single training session and went on to lose their three games there. That, all but ended Uganda’s chances, despite an impressive first round where they made it among the top 12 on the Continent.
And going into the last round, FUBA did not get any assurance of getting funds from Government to Honour the leg in Angola. In fact, FUBA wrote to FIBA to confirm the withdrawal of the team from the last leg of these qualifiers due to lack of funds. Reports indicate that FIBA stepped in the eleventh hour to fund the Silverbacks trip to Angola.
And the players, who had not trained for a single day, boarded late Thursday night, reached the following day on Friday morning for their opener on the very day! The team comprised of nine players, all local playing in the National Basketball League, which ended last year!
The campaign had sixteen national team vying for the continent’s five spots in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023. These included Angola, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Congo DR, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda.
The lost Pride
The country wouldn’t mind losing on the qualification slot or ticket but losing the pride. For what would the team do but to play with their jersey numbers fixed by mere masking tape. This was the kind of disorganization in the camp in Lunda, Angola that the team whose most elite bunch of players could not fly to Luanda. Solution was to instead have the already jerseys printed with numbers kept and devise means of having play identification numbers fixed urgently by masking tape as a requirement by FIBA, the international body.
Uganda all campaign results:
Saturday 27 November 2021
Uganda Vs Cape Verde
77 – 74
Game day 2
Sunday 28 November 2021
Uganda Vs Nigeria
69 – 95
Game day 3
Saturday 2 July 2022
Cape Verde Vs Uganda
87 – 78
Game day 5
Sunday 3 July 2022
Nigeria Vs Uganda
91 – 72
Game day 6
Friday 26 August 2022
Angola Vs Uganda
84 – 62
Game day 7
Saturday 27 August 2022
Uganda Vs Cote d’Ivoire
80 – 91
Game day 8
Sunday 28 August 2022
Guinea Vs Uganda
76 – 69
Game day 9
Friday 24 February 2023
Uganda Vs Angola
49 – 82
Game day 10
Saturday 25 February 2023
Cote d’Ivoire Vs Uganda
89 – 44
Game day 11
Sunday 26 February 2023
Uganda vs Guinea
47 – 88
Game day 12
Author Profile
- Mr. Daniels N. Tatya is an affluent Sports Writer, Commentator and Editor. His over 15 years of covering almost major sporting events makes him a revered and an authority on investigative Sports journalism in Uganda. He can also be reached via [email protected] +256(0)758268315
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