Oilers embrace cold ahead of Champions’ Cup in Egypt
The City Oilers basketball team being flagged off by Fuba president Ambrose Tashobya for Egypt over the weekend. Photo By Ismail Kezaala
What you need to know:
- The team is conducting a 10-day camp in the Mediterranean port city, 178km from the capital hoping that acclimatization will aid their continental debut like the proverbial early bird
KAMPALA. Five days have passed since City Oilers set foot in Egypt to prepare for their maiden Fiba Africa Club Champions’ Cup.
Loaded with expectations ahead of the annual 12-team tournament starting next Wednesday in Cairo, Oilers have found the cold in Alexandria not too hard to bear.
The team is conducting a 10-day camp in the Mediterranean port city, 178km from the capital hoping that acclimatization will aid their continental debut like the proverbial early bird.
“It’s very cold here,” Oilers’ coach Mandy Juruni told Daily Monitor yesterday. “At least, it’s not hot,” he added. The weather is the same in Cairo which is about two hours away by road. Juruni was clearly pleased with the change of weather from the heat in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania last month when they won the Fiba Africa Zone V Club Championships.
“We are adjusting. We had to stay warm for the first days. We felt a bit heavy at the start,” skipper Jimmy Enabu, the Zone V Most Valuable Player (MVP), differed, slightly.
The team played their first of two practice games last night against Sporting Club in their training facility which Juruni branded “European standards” with an “indoor gym (and) wooden floor.”
It’s these games that Enabu hopes will hold them in good stead before they relocate to Cairo on Monday.
“They will help us measure ourselves and get a good feel of what the tournament will be like,” shooting guard Enabu said.
With point guard Tony Drileba injured, Oilers left Kampala with 10 players and expect foreign-based Stanley Ocitti to join the team tomorrow.
They will play the tournament that brings together the best club sides in Africa for the first time with 11 players and not the full complement of 12.
Ocitti was key to winning the Zone V. Enabu described Ocitti as a player “who made the game easy” for his teammates.
City Oilers team
Kami Kabange, Landry Ndikumana, Stanley Ocitti, Brian Ssentongo, James Okello, Andrew Opio, Jonah Otim, Geoffrey Omondi, Jimmy Enabu, Ben Komakech, Daniel Juuko
