By Charles Mutebi
MTN-FUBA CLASSIC LEAGUE
Men Div 1
Falcons 89 St. Michael 51
Women
UCU 84 Nabisunsa 54
FROM the personnel to the style of play, the Mountain Dew Falcons are a club with a new identity. What has not changed – for now – is the winning habit.
The record men’s champions dispatched newly-promoted St. Michael 89-51 to get their MTN-FUBA season off to a winning start but it is not the result that fans who gathered at YMCA had necessarily come to witness.
There was little doubt about that anyway considering St. Michael are very inexperienced at this level. What the Falcons’ fans wanted to see is their set of new players and what they are can bring to the table.
They had to endure a long delay because of a miscommunication about the start of the match. Furthermore, they had to bear with a soft downpour that made the tarmac court unplayable.
But those factors notwithstanding, some observations were inescapable. First was the makeup of the line-up, which included four foreigners – with two still to come.
Secondly, it was clear that the new signings are set to turn the Falcons from a side reliant on post-plays to one that is loose behind the three-point arc. The Falcons netted eight three-pointers, seven of them through one man – Karim Mosi.
The Rwandan was relentless with the gun on the way to a game-high 31 points and he will be one to watch, as well as Gaddaffi Sinarizi, 13, and obviously Richard Omondi, 9. St. Michael’s Amin Mtambo led his young team-mates with 23 points in their losing but impressive top-flight debut.
Just as remarkable was the presence of Walker Obedi on the Falcons bench. Obedi is the Ndejje Angels’ coach, a team in the same division, but spent this game providing tactical advice to the Falcons.
FUBA officials said there was nothing wrong with Obedi’s actions because they have no rule forbidding his behaviour. That is FUBA.