There is one image from Luanda circulating around Ugandan basketball circles over the last few days that may define Uganda’s FIBA World Cup Qualifying Window 3 more than any box score ever could. It shows Silverbacks and City Oilers forward Titus Lual guarding Egypt’s giant centre Hamad Abouelrish.

At 2.35 metres, Abouelrish is arguably the tallest player in international basketball today.

Outside meme-lovers caricature of it, It is an image of two athletes playing the same sport and arguably the same position—but in completely different physical realities.

Then there is Fayed Baale.

Standing at 1.73 metres (5’8″), Baale lit up Angola for 17 points and remains one of Uganda’s most electrifying guards. Remarkably, he is also among the shortest players in the current FIBA World Cup Qualifiers.

Those two images—the tallest and one of the shortest players in the competition—capture the question Uganda basketball can no longer avoid:

Does Size Matter?

The scoreboard from Luanda told one story.

The eye test told another.

Watching the Uganda Silverbacks battle Angola, Mali and Egypt during Window 3 of the FIBA Basketball World Cup African Qualifiers, one reality became increasingly difficult to ignore.

Uganda was often giving away size across multiple positions.

Not less talented.

Not less committed.

Simply… undersized.

And in basketball, that matters.

It is an uncomfortable conversation because nobody wants to reduce the game to height. Basketball has evolved beyond the era when simply having the tallest players guaranteed success. Shooting, pace, spacing, skill and decision-making now define the modern game more than ever before.

But size never disappeared.

It simply evolved.

Today’s international basketball demands players who are 6-foot-7 and can defend guards. Centres who can protect the rim and still sprint the floor. Wings with seven-foot wingspans who can switch every screen without creating mismatches.

Against Angola, Uganda spent much of the night battling Bruno Fernando around the basket.

Against Mali, the Silverbacks struggled to match the physicality of a deeper and longer rotation.

Against Egypt, Uganda competed brilliantly for forty minutes before the accumulated physical demands of the game seemed to favour the deeper, bigger team during overtime.

Three different opponents.

One recurring observation.

Uganda was often asking smaller players to perform oversized roles.

That raises a bigger question.

Is Uganda Producing Enough Size?

Uganda has wrestled with this question before.

More than a decade ago the Silverbacks attempted to add size through players like Sam Gombya and Marial Dhal. The experiment never fully matured, while Stanley Ocitti later became arguably Uganda’s most impactful modern power forward, playing a pivotal role in the team’s historic qualification for AfroBasket 2017.

Since then, however, Uganda has largely returned to building around guards.

Perhaps the issue isn’t that Uganda lacks tall people.

Perhaps the issue is that Ugandan basketball isn’t finding them early enough.

How many players taller than 6-foot-7 are currently in structured basketball programs?

How many secondary schools actively recruit exceptionally tall students into basketball rather than letting them drift into other sports—or no organized sport at all?

How many strength and conditioning programs are designed specifically around developing young post players instead of simply producing guards?

These questions matter because international basketball increasingly rewards countries that identify physical tools early and develop skills around them.

Can Uganda Manufacture Size?

No.

Height cannot be coached.

But length can be identified.

Strength can be developed.

Mobility can be trained.

Timing can be taught.

Skill can absolutely be built.

Countries with limited basketball traditions have dramatically improved by creating deliberate pathways for taller athletes. Uganda can do the same if the federation, schools, academies and clubs align behind a long-term vision.

That vision begins with recognizing that frontcourt players require different development. A 6-foot-9 teenager should not necessarily be trained exactly like a 6-foot point guard.

The Future Is Bigger—But Also Smarter

This should not become a search for height alone.

Uganda has always produced skilled guards. Over the decades, I can name but a few, Jimmy Enabu, Tony Drileba, Mark Okidi, Cyrus Kiviiri, Josh Johnson, Kassim Namgwere, to the current crop of guards. That identity should remain.

The next step is balance.

Imagine Uganda’s talented backcourt complemented by two or three homegrown forwards standing 6-foot-8 or taller, comfortable defending, rebounding and finishing above the rim.

That changes everything.

It changes defensive schemes.

It changes rebounding battles.

It changes transition opportunities.

Most importantly, it changes expectations.

My Conclusion

Window 3 exposed many things about the Silverbacks.

Execution can improve.

Turnovers must decrease.

Closing games remains a work in progress.

But perhaps the biggest lesson wasn’t tactical at all.

Window 3 suggested that Uganda’s greatest long-term challenge may not simply be Angola, Egypt or Mali. It may be matching their physical profile.

If Uganda wants to become a consistent contender in African basketball over the next decade, developing bigger, longer and more versatile frontcourt players cannot remain an afterthought.

The conversation shouldn’t be about whether size matters.

At this level, it clearly does.

The conversation should be about what Uganda is prepared to do about it.

By Cucu Brian.

The views expressed herein are only the views of the author. Brian is an ardent Ugandan basketball follower, a basketball junkie and the founder of Basketball256 LLC.

…To understand the sheer thrill Oks got from dominating his adversaries and contemporaries, one would have to understand the source of the nickname that he’d soon take on – The Big Aristotle. The Big Aristotle had been a nickname that Shaquille O’neal had given himself as a reference to the consistent greatness that won him the 2000 MVP award. Just like Shaq, Oks had won his MVP award in the year 2000.

One of Oketcho’s closest friends and teammate Isaac ‘Magalo’ Afidra told me that, “Oks would do everything that Shaquille O’neal did. The mannerism, the celebration after making a basket and the sheer force and dominance.”

Power in the early 2000s, Wilbrod Oketcho – standing, extreme right.

Oks and Afidra met in December of 1998 during the Abe Lincoln Tournament. The Abe Lincoln tournament had been a popular basketball showcase in Uganda that collected competing teams in East Africa in both senior and junior categories. Afidra narrates, he had first met Oks that December while playing for the Power Junior team at the tournament. He recalls that he was in his Form Four(U.C.E) vacation while Oketcho was in his Form Six (U.A.C.E) vacation. The junior team did not go past the quarter finals of the tournament but as was the tourney’s norm, teams could upgrade players from the junior team to the senior team and Oketcho was upgraded to the Power seniors team to play the semi finals against Rhinos.

“The Rhinos of then is not the Rhinos of now. That team really had distinguished players.”, Afidra told me. In the semi finals, a young Oketcho faced off with a Rhinos forward, an American Marine called Dr. Jay – Afidra recalls. Oks was way ahead of his time, instantly showing confidence exchanging trash talk with the experienced marine. “Give me the ball, this is light work”, Afidra remembers Oks saying.

Wilbrod Oketcho

Before then, Afidra had only heard about Oketcho from his brother Jesse who played for Power. Jesse had repeatedly spoken of a fearless kid from SMACK who played with the Bugolobi Bingos. In one tournament, while Bugolobi was playing against Makerere University, Oks had driven through their zone defense and dropped an emphatic dunk on their forwards.

“At that time, Makerere had some of the creme de la creme, players like Humphrey Hakiza. These were gifted players.” – Afidra told me.

In 1999, both Wilbrod Oketcho and Isaac Afidra would team up for Power. As rookies, they would test the heat, and the thrills of competing in the National Basketball league. Being on any roster in that era meant you’d have to face off with the mighty Falcons. Power verses Falcons was an epic rivalry.

“In those years, everything about basketball was Falcons. They were too organized. Falcons’ players were very disciplined, they had a very tactical coach in Ronnie Kaboha and Stephen Omony was literally unstoppable.”, Afidra told me of Falcons.

Stephen Omony is a legend and the undisputed G.O.A.T of Ugandan basketball. His Runnings with Wilbrod Oketcho would start while both players were in high school.

“Without a doubt we had an early running. I was at Kitante Hill School and he was at SMACK. I was the leader of my team and he was the leader of his. He had such a big fight in him and you could tell he didn’t want to lose.”, Stephen Omony told me.

The two players (Omony and Oketcho) had a fantastic relationship off the court but on the floor, it was always fierce competition. Omony reaffirms Afidra’s comment about Falcons’ superiority and discipline in the day, “We had things we were doing as a team that were different”.  “Personally, I had a drive and resolve within me that I didn’t see in many other guys but when you compete, you can always see people that have that fire similar to yours .”, Omony says. I had a role to lead my team and so did he, Sometimes that calls for a bit of unfriendly things – Omony continued. Stephen Omony points out Marvin Banks Keronga (also a very close friend to Oks) as the other guy on the Power team that had a burning flame inside him.

Despite going unbeaten in the regular season, Oketcho and Afidra’s Power would lose to Falcons in the Finals of 1999. Afidra believes the result of those finals would have been different hadn’t it been for Oketcho tearing a ligament in the knee and Jesse having to move to the U.S ahead of the finals.

“I could see the frustration in them when they continuously competed and things not going their way. It was so intense some people misinterpreted it as hatred for each other but as far I’m concerned, It was an on-court thing.”, Omony told me about that 1999 finals between Falcons and Power.

Oketcho and Power would get restitution against Falcons with the dawn of a new millennium, the year 2000. Afidra recalls that 2000 wasn’t an easy year especially for Oketcho.
“He had to go through surgery on his knee and it was a very slow return. He joined us half way through the season”, Afidra remembers. I asked Afidra how a half healthy Oketcho could win MVP. He told me that he hadn’t seen such efficiency from a player until then.

“Oks knowing he was only recovering did only the basic stuff, He was a sure bucket in the blocks, he played good defense, locked down his opponents and set up his teammates. MVP just naturally came to him”.

Afidra remembers how hard they trained to win the league in 2000. They had learned from their slip ups from the year before. “We were fitter than any team in the league. We had to make amends.” Afidra recalls two weeks to the semi finals against Rhinos – they had no rims installed at YMCA, all they did was run hills and run on court. “The rims were only installed on a Thursday for a Friday practice. We ended up sweeping Rhinos on Saturday and Sunday in a best of three series.”

Omony acknowledges that the Power they faced in 2000 had changed a whole lot. ‘Oks and Afidra had gotten a whole lot better and Marvin had a fire in him’.

2000 Power Championship Team
Oketcho Wilbrod, Isaac Afidra, Julius ‘Shell’ Wapera, Stephen ‘Sengo’ Sengooba, Charlie, Elliot ‘Baddu’ Bagenda, Shaban Ali, Marvin Banks Keronga, Musa Malamu, Samuel Sebadduka, Martin Kindagaire.

Oks was a fierce competitor. Afidra remembers that ‘he would foul you so hard and turn to his teammates and argue with them about why they’re getting beaten easily’. He had this thing where he would extend his elbows after making a basket, whether you were his teammate or opponent, you didn’t want to be in the way of that, ‘Get out of my way‘, he would said. Oketcho created an aura of intensity starting from practice and pick up games – ‘It was always bloody. Oks and Marvin started the Power Intensity slogan still used to date ‘, Afidra tells.

“Oks never beat about the bush. Whether it was telling the lanky Julius ‘Shell’ Wapera to get stronger by going to the weight room or telling Sengo to quit playing like a girl.”

Afidra and Power won the league in the year of Oks’ passing -2008 in his honor.

For his legacy, Afidra will always remember Oketcho as a ‘true sportsman’, a ‘true competitor’, a father, big brother and a friend.

Stephen Omony will always remember Oks as a ‘happy guy who had so much positive energy to throw around.’  “His presence was always contagious and I can attest that he always pushed people around him to do and be better. You could tell that he was a smart and progressive guy who was going going to have a very impact-full life not only on the basketball court. I think he had just began expressing just who he was as a person.”

Rest in Power Wilbrod ‘Oks’ Oketcho.

By Cucu Brian| I respond to tweets, @Cucubrian | Also tag @Basketballug

In a country that’s not been so endowed with basketball Forwards, there was once a titanic figure who inspired a generation of basketball players nationally. Wilbrod ‘Oks’ Oketcho turned out for Sadolin Power between 1998 – 2008 until his young life was tragically brought to an end by thugs who attacked his house shooting him in the leg. Oks would succumb to to a blood clot that had traveled from his leg to his heart on the 14th of May 2008. I shall not delve into the conversation about the alleged clinical inefficiency at the Mulago Hospital and the circumstances surrounding his passing. He was a father, fiancee, brother and friend to so many.

Oketcho within the basketball circles was also famously known by his aliases ‘Teddy Bear’ and Mr ‘Money in the Bank’. Norman Blick one of his adversaries says he was called Teddy Bear because he was “very big, imposing, strong and ruthless but deep down he was a warm and kind hearted guy.” Norman narrates that; “He is the one guy i never dunked on, he really liked to win and would do anything to win.” On the basketball court, Oks threw all the kindness out of the window – he meant business. Norman tells on.
Wilbrod attended St Mary’s College Kisubi (SMACK) on Entebbe Road and later Makerere University. At high school level, he had already showed he was going to be dominant. ” I watched him in a high school game in which my brother Donald (Blick) played, He was a beast.” , Norman says.

Fast forward at Sadolin Power, Wilbrod Oketcho would quickly become the face of the franchise. Basketball in Uganda in the late 90s and early 2000s was tailored mostly around proficient big men and Oketcho would quickly become one of the best, if not the best of them. One of his former coaches at Sadolin Power, Mr Peter Mubanda dubbed him ‘Money in the Bank’. He was such a dependable player with little or no bad days at the office. He came with so much game every time. Oketcho was subsequently voted the league’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the year 2000.

It’s almost impossible to tell the Oketcho basketball tale without telling it through the eyes of his teammate, friend, kid brother and protege – Ken Balyejjusa. Together, the two players while at Sadolin Power, forged one of the most dominant partnerships ever seen in Ugandan basketball. The two players were filling up the bucket on each other’s facilitation.

“I can only compare that partnership to Stockton and Karl Marlone. Basketball in Uganda hadn’t yet seen a point guard and a big man that complimented each other in almost the same proportions.” – Norman Blick told me of the Oketcho – Balyejjusa partnership. Every time Oks got the rebound, he knew Ken was running and every time Ken had the ball, he knew how to find Oks in his spots, Norman continued. They had worked out their pick and roll thing, I mean these guys were brothers on and off the court – Norman concluded.

ken and I usually talk matters basketball every time we meet up. He is as enthusiastic about the game as the first time we all first fell in love with it. His passion for basketball runs deep. It’s reflected in his choice of words when he speaks of the game he has retired from and made attempts at comebacks too. Up until choosing to do this LegendsUG series, the conversation about his departed big brother had never turned up. When I first called him, he was getting ready to drive from Mbale to his home city of Jinja – a journey that takes about three hours. When he was finally settled down in Jinja, I re-introduced the conversation. Ken sighed severely for several seconds pondering where to start. When he had finished catching his breath, he said; “Brian you know you’re going to have to guide this conversation because I could go on and on till tomorrow and the day after that”. I really had no intention to structure our conversation. If anything, I needed Ken to share from deep within, a Wilbrod Oketcho version, the way that only those close to him knew.

Wilbrod Oketcho instructing teammate Mark Enabu

Ken Balyejjusa had first seen Oketcho while he (Oketcho)was coach at SMACK. Ken would regularly go to SMACK to visit his brothers at the Entebbe school while he (Ken) was a student at Kabojja School. Kabojja School – now defunct and replaced by Kabojja International School had been a Ugandan high school basketball power house with players like Ivan Enabu, Allan Tawoda and Snap-G Babumba. Ken in himself a high school basketball star, would sneak up on SMACK practices every time he visited his brothers. Indeed there was a lot of clamors about a one Kenneth Balyejjusa in the corridors of high school basketball. He was electric and equally electrifying to watch.

But the duo did not meet until the Sprite Qualifiers in 2002. Ken Balyejjusa had joined his team late for the tournament because he was coming off another tournament in Eldoret – Kenya. He had arrived when Kabojja was playing St Peter’s Nalya – another high school basketball power house at the time. When he had arrived and the buzz about him being in the building had started, the SMACK coach Oketcho is said to have wondered out loud saying; “This skinny guy is who you are all afraid of!” Despite his team being down when he had first arrived, Ken helped to turn that game around and Kabojja would go on to win the finals of the tournament against Mazolidi high.

At the end of that tournament, Wilbrod Oketcho approached Ken Balyejjussa recruiting him to Sadolin Power. “I’m sure you can help us change a few things at Sadolin Power.“, Balyejjusa remembers Oketcho asking him.

“I can’t explain how that felt. Here I was in 2002, with the league MVP of 2000 talking to me at that level. I almost instantly dreamed of working with a person like that who blindly believed in what I can bring to the table.” – Balyejjusa said with audibly sporadic sighs.

Balyejjusa says that after high school, he could not immediately join Power because his home is in Jinja and Power was a Kampala team so he had a short stint at the Jinja based Sky Jammers. Balyejjusa says that Oketcho had constantly stayed in touch and was mentoring him and ‘capturing his intrigue in the league’.

“Eventually when i joined Sadolin Power in 2003, It didn’t take any time for us to click. He (Oketcho) had helped me off the court. He was a big brother to me.”, Balyejjusa told me.

On his character, Balyejjusa defines Oks as a ‘very likeable guy’ who enjoyed making ‘tons of jokes’ and friends, very generous, very reliable and ‘surprisingly enough, a very good listener’.

On his partnership with Oketcho, Balyejjusa recalls that when he had just joined the league, it was mostly a big man’s game.
“Most of the sets were aimed at Oks. He was the first option. But Oks believed so much in my game he quickly started turning that around. From 1 – 4 to 4 – 1.” Ken said about the sharing of scoring roles between guard and forward and forward to guard.

“He was such a versatile player. In one game against Falcons, Oks played point for the entire game because he was being guarded by Eric Malinga. For a big guy, he was very agile with incredible footwork and some of the best court vision I’ve seen. He was a big man lashing out no look passes.”, Balyejjusa says of Oketcho.

Whenever Oketcho had the ball, Balyejjusa remembers that all he had to do is be in the right spots or make the right quick cuts and Oketcho would be ready to offload the ball. He recalls that Oketcho had an affinity for passing to the hot hand until it had burned out. “If he knew you had a hot hand, he just had to find you. He made basketball so easy”. For the teams they versed, it became the near impossible task of denying Oks the rebound and stopping Ken from running or stopping Ken from finding Oks – a job they continually terribly failed at. Oks and Ken stacked up numbers like the league had never seen.

Ken Balejjusa (Blue) takes on Falcons Sam Obol in a league game at YMCA Wandegeya

On his half court game, Ken Balyejjusa remembers Oks as a beast. With his size , he was lethal at attacking the hoop. He had a good shot and very good eyes so he could both facilitate or go for the finish. He was an absolute bully to smaller bodies piled anywhere near the hoop. “ Oks had mastered a cut through the middle of the the paint. I’d lob the ball to him and he’d float it into the basket – we called it the ‘One hand Project’.

When I asked Balyejjusa about his fondest memory of Oketcho, he was spoilt for choice. The humming stutter and momental silence signaled a milliard of those. He eventually settled for a tale of his charisma.

“When I had just joined the team, Oks was a big Aristotle (reference to classical Greek philosopher and polymath). Every time he spoke, very few could counter. He believed that to change things around Sadolin Power, somebody younger than everybody else had to be captain – he pushed for it and I became captain in my first year at the team. That elevated my confidence.” , Ken told me.

On his leadership, Ken pointed out how Wilbrod Oketcho led from the front. “You just had to follow when you saw him in the thick of things. Sometimes he was a fierce leader, and it would look seemingly as if he was quarreling while tasking everyone to put in their best effort.”

Balyejjusa says Wilbrod Oketcho was a leader in the thick of things. Never at the back

He was equally inclusive – he wanted everybody to be on the same page. He routinely emphasized doing things together – so guys hanged out together, checked on each other and built a strong spirit of camaraderie. “That’s the genesis of the whole Power is a family thing”, Ken pointed out.

Much as he was an outstanding athlete with Sadolin Power, Wilbrod Oketcho was a graduate and a professional who worked with the Electoral Commission. Balyejjusa remembers that Oketcho and other guys at Power emphasized the need for an education and pursuit of a career outside basketball. “You see at that time, playing basketball had very little monetary value, we played mostly for the passion . Oks , Marvin, Simon, Kasendwa and Sam all had good jobs, they showed that you can be a father, a husband, a professional and still play the game. They set the standard for me to finish at UCU” – Ken narrated.

Ken Balyejjusa considers it a ‘big blessing’ and a rare stroke of serendipity to have been able to play with Wilbrod Oketcho, to share in his basketball story, to interact and to get to know the amazing man he was. A legend indeed.

Kevin Durant once said that; “If basketball is all I’ve ever been good at, then I have terribly failed.”

Power basketball Club was able to honor the legacy of Wilbrod ‘OKS’ Oketcho (God rest his soul) with the NBL title championship in the same year (2008) of his passing and two more in 2010 and 2011. Since 2008, the jersey with Number 11 was retired at Power in honor of Oketcho.

Rest in Power OKS.

By Cucu Brian | I respond to tweets | @Cucubrian
Share your fondest memory of OKs by tweet and we shall share it on our platforms. Be sure to tag @Cucubrian and @Basketballug

In 2017, the KIU Titans made their maiden NBL finals by defeating Warriors in the semi finals. Their waiting opponent, the City Oilers then looking to defend the NBL title they’d won five straight times before. The Titans challenge then, was promptly ended with a 4 -0 sweep. Fast forward to 2023, the Oilers are looking to defend the NBL title for the ninth straight time and once again, Titans have the daunting task of ending their decade long reign in a best of seven NBL Finals series. Success in the NBL finals is ever becoming very important specially because the champion is in practice tipped to represent Uganda in the very sought after Basketball Africa League(BAL).

Whereas FUBA announced that winning the title will not determine Uganda’s BAL candidate, a dynamic that saw potential challengers Namuwongo Blazers in an unprecedented fashion opt out of the NBL playoffs, this finals will most probably be about franchise pedigree.  The Oilers with not much resistance from Our Savior swept their way to the finals in a best of five semi finals series. Our Savior having completed the regular season in seventh spot would have had to clash with Blazers at the quarter finals stage and perhaps quite frankly, the Blazers decision to opt out of the playoffs denied us a repeat of the 2022 finals clash at the Final Four stage. Oilers versus Blazers would have been one for the books. KIU Titans equally cruised through the semis defeating UCU Canons. The Canons overcame the threat of near relegation to claim a playoffs spot but fell short against the Titans. Their attempt to a comeback fell short by a point (75-74) in game three when Peter Sifuma failed to secure a clean look coming out of a time out with 7 seconds to play. 

In January 2023, I discussed the Eminent power Shift in Ugandan basketball and I pitted the Titans to Challenge the Oilers to the 2023 NBL Championship. Since then, Oilers and Titan have faced off twice in the regular season. In the season opener, Oilers humiliated Titans in a one sided affair (79-51). Their second round encounter was much too different yet produced the same results – an Oilers victory but this time settled in overtime after 66-66 at the end of 40 minutes.

In 2017, Saidi ‘Carmelo’ Amisi was on the Warriors squad that fell to KIU in the semi finals and last season, Amisi was an important piece for the Namuwongo Blazers as they fell to the Oilers in an epic game seven of the NBL Finals. The Oilers are way too a familiar opponent for Melo who is averaging a 16.4ppg this season. Since the second round, Titans added Denis Balungu (13ppg) to their roaster. Interestingly, the shooting guard is no stranger to Oilers in the finals having been part of the Titans back in 2017 finals. The rest of the cast; Joel Banza, Edgar Munaba, Obleng Peter, Joe Chuma , Stanley Mugerwa, Innocent Ochera, Collin Kasujja (played in the 2022 finals vs Oilers with Namuwongo Blazers), Isaiah Ater Mabeny(played in the 2019 NBL finals for the UCU Canons) and Okoth Henry will have to bring their A-game.

When they last played the Titans in the NBL Finals, the Oilers had veteran Stephen Omony and Landry Ndikumana among their ranks. But I can count several players that were on that squad that are still pivotal on the Oilers team today. Tony Drileba, Jimmy Enabu, Ben Komakech, James Okello and Ivan Muhwezi. With the experience obtained from playing in numerous high level competitions in Africa, the Oilers have fashioned themselves into the ultimate NBL finals machine. Nine straight Finals is absolutely insane. While Oilers can boast about their exploits in Africa and being familiar with the NBL Finals, their greatest asset is hunger in their newbies. Titus Lual, the silverbacks stretch forward signed from UCU is a menace and so is his counterpart, the point guard Fayed Bbale. Both have never won the NBL title though themselves challenged the same organization they put on for now in the 2019 NBL Finals while with UCU Canons. The duo has been promised the keys to the kingdom and inducted in the Oilers winning culture. Ruai Luak is having an insane season with a 13ppg this season, the most on Oilers for a team that shares the offensive load. South Sudan imports Mer Maker (11.5ppg & 9rpg)  and Michael Ngot are also available to the Oilers.

It is the combination of hunger in their new players, the depth in their roaster and the vast experience that makes the Oilers such a tough opponent locally.

 But basketball is a game of 5 aside. Both teams have the quality for a grand finals showdown; eventually, it will come down to the X and Os – and which team makes the least mistakes in any particular game. Julius Lutwama will be coaching for the first time at this stage as head coach for the KIU Titans against a seasoned Mandy Juruni who has won the Uganda NBL title as coach, a record 9 times straight (with Warriors in 2012 and 2013 till to date with Oilers)! Only the COVID-19 lockdowns were able to stop Mandy Juruni from winning an NBL chip, a record Julius Lutwama intends to challenge. The Titans have seemingly had challenges with choosing a head tactician until they settled with Lutwama. Lutwama was assisting most of the head coaches before him. Those included Raymond Muhumuza and most recently Carrey Odhiambo.

Both Titans and Oilers have fans that make for an electric finals atmosphere but what’s murky is if this will be the end of the Oilers decade long grip on the Uganda NBL!

By Cucu Brian | brian@basketball256.net | Twitter: @Cucubrian
The views expressed herein are only the views of the author. Brian is an ardent Ugandan basketball follower, a basketball junkie and the founder of Basketball256 LLC.