KAMPALA – The Federation of Uganda Basketball Associations (FUBA) has on Wednesday, September 02nd, announced postponement of the National Basketball League (NBL) Semifinal and finals Playoffs.
The semis were slatted to start on Friday October 4th 2019, but have now been pushed to a further date.
This affects both the men’s and lady’s divisions.
It has been confirmed that the postponement is because of the various international activities involving Ugandan teams and players who are in turn supposed to feature in the league’s playoffs.
The international activities include 3×3 U23 FIBA World Cup that is already underway in Lanzhou, China where UCU Lady Canons have Sarah Ageno and Abey Priscilla on the team while JKL Lady Dolphins have Ritah Imanishimwe.
The three are expected to return on October 8th and will be joined by the men’s team, which has two City Oilers players (Ivan Muhwezi and Tonny Drileba) and one UCU Canons player (Fayed Bbale), to travel for the World Beach Games (men and women) in Doha, Qatar. The latter tournament will run from October 12th -16th.
City Oilers also have the Basketball Africa League (BAL) Qualifiers slated for October 15th-20th in Dar el Salam, Tanzania.
JKL Lady Dolphins will be travelling to Dar el Salam for the Women’s Zone 5 tournament that runs from October 21st-26th.
Between October 28th and November 5th, UCU will have two teams at the 3×3 University World Championship and this means the series involving the two sides cannot go on.
Uganda will then host the FIBA 3X3 Africa Cup between November 7thand 11th in Kampala.
Given the busy schedule, the federation has decided that November 15th is the most realistic date for the start of the semifinal playoffs.
Federation president Nasser Sserunjogi revealed that the tight schedule only meant that adjustments had to be made.
“The schedule is quite tight and it is going to be very hard for us to have these games consistently so we have thought it wise to start on November 15th, stated Sserunjogi.
“We expect that by then all the teams and players will be available to give the fans the most entertaining basketball action.”
Action will get underway with defending champions JKL Lady Dolphins entertaining KIU Rangers before UCU Canons face Betway Power in the last game of the night.
