In the finals series between the UPDF Tomahawks and UMU Flames, a lot has transpired in 4 games and it begs the question, what is wrong with the UPDF Tomahawks?

Before I detail what has been annoying, let me talk about 2 major incidents that happened in the latest meeting, game 4.

At some point in the game, the head of the club, Mr. Mwijuka Henry begun saying the game should stop, citing unfair officiation.

This caused a farce, the game was halted for a bit but it soon resumed.

Later in the game, a UPDF Tomahawks player, Deng Gai Isaac, appeared to hit Rubahimbya Jassey on the head and was called for an unsportsmanlike foul.

That was his second and he was ejected.

However though, Jassey seemed to be in a lot of pain and clearly, Deng’s actions were uncalled for.

You might be wondering, why is this guy focusing on UPDF.

In this series, their discipline has been terrible and this is very surprising given that the Vice President, Technical, Mr Baker Kyambadde is their coach.

His actions, particularly in game 2, were also surprising, given his position.

In game 4 alone, UPDF was charged with 3 unsportsmanlike fouls, a technical and had 1 player ejected.

Game 2 was similar. The Tomahawks were called for 3 unsportsmanlike fouls and had one player ejected.

Janvier Baraka elbowed Malok Marol in the face and man was left bleeding and in agonizing pain.

That was Baraka’s second unsportsmanlike foul and he was ejected.

Upon his ejection, chaos erupted as the referees demanded that he leaves the team bench.

However, the UPDF coach, Baker, insisted that the player stays on the bench saying that his dismissal from the team bench wasn’t in the rules.

However according to the FIBA rules Article 40.6,

“Any disqualified player, substitute, head coach, assistant Coach, excluded player or accompanying delegation member must leave the game immediately (taking no more than 30 seconds) and shall go to and remain in the team’s dressing room for the duration of the game or shall leave the building.”

The referees opted not to continue with the game and their was a standstill.

Words were flying left, right and center and Mr. Baker was heard repetitively questioning the competence of all the officials.

After a while, Mr. Mwijuka came, calmed the situation down and the game continued.

These were not very good scenes more so from a ‘senior’ official and a leader in the Federation.

Ahead of the 2025 NBL season, Mr. Baker hinted on the fact that coaches could be suspended for their actions.

He said, “the reports coming in from the incharges are going to be very key. As a coach, if you don’t organize yourself in the manner in which you express yourself in a game, you could be suspended.”

Clearly in games 2 and 4, the actions from the UPDF contingent were not good and we don’t know what could be done about it.

In the four games played so far, UPDF has had 6 unsportsmanlike fouls, 2 technical fouls and 2 players ejected.

But most importantly, they caused commotion in games 2 and 4 and this begs a question,

What could be wrong?

UPDF led the finals series 2-0 but the UMU Flames have won 2 in a row to level it up.

Game 5 will be on Wednesday 26th at Hamz Stadium, Nakivubo.