The hope that many had in the Silverbacks turned into disappointment even before the tournament had started.

After the Gazelles letting many down with their 1-point loss to South Sudan in the quarter finals, many Ugandans turned to the Silverbacks, hoping that they would bring some happiness with good performances.

However, prior to the tournament, there was a bit of turmoil.

The team was supposed to camp in South Africa before heading to Angola for the championship.

While on NBS Sport, the 12-man team was announced but before long, some changes had already been made.

Moni Jacksen, who had been named on the team was temporarily removed, pending his clearance.

However, when the team was in South Africa, they were hit by some more problems.

Christopher Mubiru, who was in camp, was not cleared as Ugandan.

Ishmail Wainright and Emmanuel Mugenga all pulled out and that meant that only 9 players were available.

Moni Jacksen was available and he was called in quickly. The flip to this was that he was going to play as a naturalized player which could possibly affect his involvement with the team in the future.

With that, the Silverbacks only had 10 players available for the tournament and finished with 9, after Moni sustained an injury in the first game against Senegal.

Performance at the tournament

Despite putting up spirited fights, the Silverbacks lost all their 3 games in the group stages. 88-53, 85-72 and 77-64 against Senegal, Mali and Egypt respectively.

In the opener against Senegal, Uganda trailed by 14 at halftime but you could see the fight from the boys. In the second half, the situation went berserk.  

They scored just 9 points in the third quarter and when Moni Jacksen got an injury in the fourth, the Silverbacks were outscored 25-8, to make it 88-53.

In the second game against Mali, the Silverbacks trailed 25-8 after the first quarter but managed to recover in the second and third.

They outscored Mali 43-36 in the second and third quarters and they cut the deficit to as small as 4 points.

However, Mali closed the third quarter well, with a 10-point lead and in the fourth, Uganda couldn’t catch up.

The game against Egypt was the most painful one. It was there for the taking for both teams but somehow we couldn’t get there.

The Silverbacks led by as many as 3 points in the third quarter and were down by 6 points midway through the fourth.

When Egypt made a 10-0 run, the team couldn’t recover and they ended losing the game 77-64.

When you look at how the team performed in all those games, one couldn’t help but wish.

What if we had Arthur Kaluma. What if Ishmail, Seiko or Mubiru were present. Perhaps we could have won a game or 2.

Top Performers

John Deng Geu was the top performer for the Silverbacks. He averaged 22 points and scored 20+ in 2 of the 3 games, his highest being 27 against Mali.

The Captain Robinson Opong was the second best player for the Silverbacks and he averaged 12.3 points. Despite his bad start, scoring just 4 points in the first game, he turned up big in the next 2 games.

He scored 19 points against Mali and 14 against Egypt and was a very big threat for Uganda offensively.

Jonathan Komagum was the defensive anchor for the Silverbacks. He played the second most minutes for the Silverbacks and contributed a lot, more so when it came to cleaning the glass.

Komagum averaged 13 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks.

Naseef Lubowa also averaged double digits (10 points). His main weapon was the drive to the basket and in the final against Egypt, he came up big with 13 points.

Despite playing just 1 game, Moni Jacksen registered 10 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 block.

Most of the other players did not have a lot of output but they contributed in their own way.

Is the performance a reflection of a bigger problem?

In all honesty, if you think about, regardless of which players we took this was always going to be a very difficult tournament with Senegal, Mali and Egypt all in the same group with us.

With the players that we had and how the situation was for Uganda, this performance was not surprising. If anyone got disappointed at the results, then they never understood the state in which the team was.

The biggest disappointment wasn’t the results but the fact that we couldn’t field a full 12-man roster yet there are thousands of players in Uganda.

Are they that bad that they can’t make the National Team just to fill a spot?

The National Team committee had a plan and they knew which players they wanted to put forth but unfortunately, things did not go their way.

What hurt most was the fact that there was no plan B and all this made Uganda look like a  disorganized and an unserious country.

Moni Jacksen and Christopher Mubiru had been not cleared as Ugandan, you would have thought that the Technical Committee knew this prior but they still took them and hoped for that things would change.

Mubiru ended up not playing while Jacksen was played as a naturalized player which could affect his future involvement for the Silverbacks.

Ishmail Wainright opted out and up to now, the public hasn’t a clue what happened. Emmanuel Mugenga, who had also represented the Nation before, also did not come and we had no contingency plan.

With all this happening, the National Team had to find solutions but nothing came to fruition.

Ian Duncan Lubwama of the JT Jaguars was contacted but he couldn’t make it due to his job.

Brick Nkugwa who was in the country at the time was also contacted but he also couldn’t make it.

Mind you, Tonny Drileba was initially supposed to be on the team but he opted out and was replaced by Ivan Muhwezi.

When that happened, you’d have thought that it was a sign for the Coaches and managers to start looking for alternatives for other players but I guess they took it lightly.

What does this mean?

You can’t fault the National team committee for the players pulling out but you can fault them for not having ready replacements.

In sports, there is usually a big pool of players who compete for spots and a final team is selected.

However lately for the Silverbacks, a 12-man team is just announced.

If there was, let’s say, a 30 player pool which is being considered, then you will always have players ready to compete and you will strive to get them opportunities to play at the high levels.

The Silverbacks do not have a system like that. They have players they want and they just call them. By the time you are called, it’s as though your spot is guaranteed.

There is no system where players compete to earn their slots and this means that we don’t have ready players to come in in case players pull out or can’t make it for some reason.

The management has to find a solution to this quickly because as things stand, many people do not strive to make the Silverbacks team because they think that the management already has those they want.

Secondly, FUBA has not tried to create or look for opportunities for some players (at senior level) to play at high levels.

In February and July 2026, the Silverbacks will face the Angola, Egypt and Mali during the World Cup Qualifiers.

It is very hard to predict who will be on that team but it is an opportunity for Uganda to give some new and young players opportunity at the continental stage.