Federation of Uganda Basketball (FUBA) President Ambrose Tashobya is exited about the performance of his teams now wants Kampala to hots more Zone Five events in future.
He was so impressed with the performance of his three men's team namely But only Warriors playing in pool A made it to the semi finals while top side D Mark Power and Falcons battle for recognition but just fell short
Warriors must now see how far they can go in the event dominating by the participating Kenyan clubs KCB Lions, Kenya Ports Authority and Co-operative Bank of kenya.
In the women category, Kampala City Council (KCC) who reached the last four but A1 Chakllenge and Kampala International University (KIU) Rangers found ou early that there is still some work to be done.
Here again, the Kenyas charges led by reigning zonal champions Kenya Ports Authority, Eagle Wings and APR of Rwanda will battle it to see who makes it to the finals on Sunday.
Tashobya says he expected his boys to do well but was not so dissapointed and now he knows from where Uganda can start to work if they are to build a regional empire. They are convinced they can do it though.
"We really expected Power not to be out of the event at the preliminary round stages because they did a lot during their trainings. Perhaps it was due to technical matters." he observes.
He noted that the team, Uganda's main hope of a medal in the tournament might not have planned technically and this could be the difference as far as he is concerned.
The level of the competition displayed here is very high indeed, he notes, adding that he appreciates this and was all the same proud of his six teams. "As you can see the results are really close."
Other than the Tanzanian teams namely ABC and JKT, the rest of the clubs in this six day tournament have done so well.
But Tashoibya remains concerned about the performance of his girls saying there is need to do a lot more before the can battle out there against the best of the region.
KCC though managed to reached to the semi finals with other two KIU Rangers and A1 Challenge all falling by the way side.But they have the exposure and this is important.
With the Lugogo Indoor Stadium undergoing a massive renovation, Tashobya said this venue once completed will be available from next year and his office will ask Fiba to bring more championships in Kampala.
"Whether it is the Africa club championships or the nations cup, we will ask to have another one like this here and very soon. Indoor activity will be good for the game as you really can not expect to see great action on an out door court." he said.
This noted but the results suggests otherwise. It has been all fire and fury. High commedy and low drama in Kampala whether under the scorching sun or even playing without a game shot clock.
It has never really did not mattered. The circumstances not withstanding, flash back to the following games. KCB v KPA, Warriors v Co-op and New Stars v Falcons.
Some highly charged and brilliantly contested mnatches. If only the referees could put up with the pace !
Tashobya, who leads the crowd in cheering every time the six Ugandan sides took to the court wants young girls to take up the sport in schools alot more seriously.
"Our main undoing right now is lack of experience. The kind of exposure we got during these games will be key to our moving ahead.
My teams did their best but it was clear they could not handle the pressure in a tournament of this magnitude. It is experience that surely did let us down at such a high level competition like this."
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He says Uganda will invest in the technical arm of the game because this is evidenytly where the Ugandan teams failed the litmus test.
"Generally I want to have as many coaching clinics as because our biggest problem is the technical arm. There is no two way about it, we must train our coaches and that is the reality."
He says that he was glad that corporate was coming in to basketball to partner with Fuba and this is a good indication that things are moving to the right direction. "We are accountable and we expect them to come in big numbers once this event is over as other have shown interest to work with us." he concludes.
They are Sprite, Broadband company, KCB, Magic Fm, National Broadcasting, Sanyu Radio and some other small ones who chipped in to make this show a success. Kampala surely has seen a lot more than they can bargain for !.
The team thyat has made it possible are led by Chairman Bob Buga, vice chairman Alexander Kasendwa, treasurer Chris Kyebandwa and secretary general Tom Ocamringa.
Not to be left behind are publicity Joe Brwa, hospitality Joy Olinga, transport Baganda Eliot, protocal Musaazi William and technical Sunday Manano.
Dann O. Werre
FIBA Africa