In 2008, The UCU Canons under then boss and also the initiator of the UCU Basketball program, Jason Mehl went unbeaten in the regular season. With players like the brothers Jeff Omondi and Robert Mugabe at their prime, Adam Njoroge, Sam Lukaire (Now Assistant Coach) and I can go on and on, they were a dynamic force to reckon with. The Canons had been tipped to win the league in their first season in the NBL, but then came Sadolin Power. With it’s young and dynamic players like Joseph Ikong , Ben Komakech, Richard Balemwa, Allan Tawoda ,Ken Balyejusa excetera – the dream of the NBL title for the Canons has been so close but yet so far. In 2008, Coach Nicholas Natuhereza was a junior student at the university and Jason Mehl’s understudy.
canons celebrate their entry into the NBL 2019 Finals. Photo: FUBA/Stone.
Last night after the final buzzer that sent the Canons into the frenzy for eliminating Betway Power and proceeding to their second ever NBL Finals, I couldn’t help but think ‘ohh how old lady karma she’s a beach’. The Canons, largely young, most of them either rooks or sophomores and with very little experience – how they took down a very experienced Power side 3-1 in a best of five series especially after going down the first and then winning three straight! The players, at the end of game 4 celebrated their coach Nicholas Natuhereza the African way by soaking the celebrant in water (Please soak me in champagne any day) and quite rightly so, we can attest that this milestone can be credited to Coach Nick’s personal growth.
Much as UCU can boast of the best university basketball program in Uganda, the rules change when it comes to participating in the national league. I believe it’s a challenge to achieve building super teams because students graduate and leave the school every year. This leaves coaches in these institutions with not longer than a year or two to build winning teams and coach Nick has managed to do this. David Kongor, Bbale Fayed, Caesar Adoke, Jerry Kayanga are freshly from Division One and turning them into NBL finalists they must have flown on the wings of their coach’s experience.
Understand that coaches are not or should not only be masters of the sport they teach but also custodians of a vast amount of knowledge and wisdom. It particularly gets tougher for a coach like Nick who’s trying to get boys to win a men’s title. Imagine Chuma Fadhili and Titus Lual being the most experienced players on your team!
In a post series conversation with Titus Lual, he told Basketball256.net;
“I can’t even begin to compare myself to most of them in terms of experience. I can’t compare myself to Ameny or Afidra but coach emphasized that we engage our mental and also prepare for the physical challenge.”
Thus far, Natuhereza has managed to take the Canons – a basketball program he inherited from Jason Mehl to two NBL finals with the first finals tour lasting a full series seven games against City Oilers in 2015.
But basketball like history, is very harsh because it refuses to remember the soldier but remembers the king. It remembers the winners and forgets the losers. From here on, Nick Natuhereza and his army of young soldiers can forever write their names in stone and perhaps get a giant monument erected at their Mukono Campus if they can achieve the full glory of winning their maiden NBL title but first, they’ll wait for the outcome from the series between Warriors and City Oilers. For now, Oilers lead 2-1 with game 4 to be played tonight at Lugogo Indoor Stadium.
brian@basketball256.net | Twitter: @Cucubrian
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