On Thursday 10th September 2026, there was a report that the City Oilers had parted ways with their head coach, Andrew Tendo. Although the club had not put out a public statement yet, the information was largely said to be accurate. In the wake of this news, a big question arises. Was Coach Tendo the problem at the City Oilers?

To unpack all of this, you have to look at multiple factors. Some of these include events that happened at the club which he had no control over and those in which he had control. However, we shall start from the beginning.

Ascendency to Head Coach Position

In December of 2023, Andrew Tendo was named as the new head coach for the City Oilers. This was after they had won their 9th championship and Mandy Juruni had gotten a new job as the Head Coach of Rwandese side Kepler. This left a gap and the Oilers filled it with Coach Andrew Tendo.

Tendo had been a player for the City Oilers for a number of years and he transitioned into coaching. He was an assistant for Mandy Juruni for a number of years and he got valuable experience. Additionally, he had worked with the management long enough and as thus was seen as the perfect man for the job.

Record during his tenure

Delivering the 10th Championship

In his very first season, Coach Tendo delivered a championship. This championship was very historic because it was the club’s tenth title and given the turmoil that the club had gone through midseason, it was a perfect way to cap the year. Also, this championship instilled confidence in the fans and the management that Tendo was the right man for the job. In the 2024 season, the Oilers lost just 1 game.

Being dethroned

The 2025 season was different though. After a near perfect 2024 season, no one predicted what would come in 2025. The Oilers fell face down. It was the perfect example of falling from grace to grass.

City Oilers lost 6 of 11 games in the first round. In the second, they improved their record and won 7 of 11. This put them at 12 wins and 10 losses and they made it to the playoffs by a whisker.

This was very surprising because a team that had been near perfect just the year before was now in shambles. This was the moment in which questions about coach Tendo’s ability to lead this team increased. Some people argued that he had not been given the right players while some questioned his tactics. Nonetheless, the team wasn’t performing well and someone had to take the blame for it.

In the playoffs, the Oilers added players, Kurt Curry and Chad Bowie. These 2 helped the Oilers tremendously as they swept the JT Jaguars in the quarterfinals and edged Sommet 3-2 in a semifinals series that was decided in game 5. This meant that the Oilers had made another trip to the finals with a chance to win their 11th championship.

 In the finals, the Oilers met the Namuwongo Blazers. This was a highly anticipated series and it promised to deliver excitement on multiple fronts. City Oilers shocked many people when they won the first 2 games. At this point, it looked like they were well on their way to an 11th title. Suddenly, the lion in the Namuwongo Blazers arose and they went on to win 4 straight games to dethrone the Oilers.

This defeat was expected to change the history of Ugandan basketball because for the first time in over a decade, there was a new champion. For the City Oilers, this was a reality check and they had to devise schemes to take them back to the mountain top. This was expected to happen sooner and the 2026 season was the perfect opportunity to prove that what had happened in 2025 was an accident.

Back-to-back championship defeats

Fast forward to 2026, the Oilers got services of the 2025 NBL MVP Joel Lukoji and former champion and MVP Landry Ndikumana. There was a lot of expectations from them and in the regular season, they did okay. The Oilers started the season with a victory against the Nam Blazers and only fell to the Rezlife Saints in the first round. However, in the second, the Blazers got revenge and thus finished as the number one seed ahead of the Oilers despite them each having a 20-2 record.

In the playoffs, the Oilers added Patrick Rembert and Germaine Roebuck. They swept the KCCA Panthers and the Rezlife Saints in the quarter and semifinals respectively. They once again managed to reach the finals and came so close. The Oilers led the finals series 3-2 and had 2 opportunities to reclaim the title. However, the Blazers managed to win the final 2 games of the series and this marked a second season in a row that the City Oilers had fallen short in the finals.

For the 3 years under Coach Andrew Tendo, the City Oilers played 100 games and won 77 of them. The Oilers won 1 championship (2024) and were runners-up for the next 2 seasons. On the surface, this looks like a good record, but for the City Oilers, was it? Did Coach Tendo achieve what was expected or did he underachieve?

2024 City Oilers Turmoil

During the 2024 NBL season, the City Oilers experienced turmoil. 3 of the senior players; Tonny Drileba, Jimmy Enabu and James Okello left the club halfway. The timing of their departure was also bad as they left just after the mid-season transfer window. This was coach Tendo’s first season and somehow, he had to make sure his team survived this storm. From that moment onwards, the City Oilers won all their games and secured their 10th championship.

Coach Tendo doesn’t get a lot of credit for that but his ability to help the team navigate through that trying season should be commended. Matter of fact, the voices that doubted his ability were quieted after that. However, that was only for a moment.

The rise of the Namuwongo Blazers

After being eliminated in the semifinals in 2024, the Namuwongo Blazers made major signings ahead of the 2025 NBL season. Among the signings were former City Oilers’ stars; Jimmy Enabu, James Okello and Tonny Drileba. At this point in time, the Namuwongo Blazers were a far better team compared to the Oilers. This in many ways did not have anything to do with coach Tendo but rather management. Their star players had gotten issues with the management and crossed over to their rivals. What could the coach do about it? To make matter worse, these players had a chip on their shoulder. They had a point to prove.

In these 2 seasons, the City Oilers did not have a better team that the Namuwongo Blazers. That was very evident and even a child could see that. As a coach, what would Andrew Tendo have done better? Perhaps, prepare his team for the big moments. But they made it to the finals and came close. Was their falling short due lack of preparation by the coach?

Preparation of the team

In 2024 when the trio left, the remaining pieces led by Ivan Muhwezi and Fayed bale were tasked with taking on the mantle and they delivered the championship. However, Ivan Muhwezi also had a falling out with the management and left the following season. A couple of players that they had brought in were Malual Dier, Benjamin Kawumi, and Edgar Munaba were expected to help compliment Fayed and company. Those players had not won anything major and had not led teams to championships. The one who had come close was Edgar Munaba as he had made back-to-back finals appearances with the KIU Titans. Even then, he was not the main man for the Titans. He had been a big piece for them but not thee man.

What the Oilers had to do was to prepare this team for what was to come. In the first round of the 2025 season, the team played and lost 6 of 11 games. In one way or another, this was training for them. To suffer and be able to learn the hard way. In the second round, Moses Maker was added and the team’s record improved to from 5-6 in round one to 7-4 in round 2. This helped them to get the push to the playoffs.

The Oilers had a trick up their sleeves ahead of the playoffs. They added international players; Chad Bowie and Kurt Curry and there was a lot of debate about their eligibility. In the quarterfinals, the duo carried the team past the JT Jaguars, a side that had defeated the Oilers in both games during the regular season. In the semifinals, they went toe-to-toe with Sommet and they prevailed in game 5. The finals series was a different ball game though. The Oilers led the series 2-0 but the Blazers won the next 4 games to claim the championship.

Those playoffs exposed the City Oilers a lot in the area of preparation or lack of mainly for the players. Chad Bowie and Kurt Curry were treated like the second coming of Jesus. They were doing everything. Each averaged more than 34 minutes and when they were on the floor, they had the ball about 70% of the time. What were the other players supposed to do?

Some players who were on the bench never got minutes. Think about it for a second, you played all through the regular season but never got a chance when it mattered the most. How would you feel? Was it a case of the players not being good enough and the coach not trusting them or was it that management demanded that their new toys play a lot because of the investment the team had made in them? What was the real issue? Is it that the coach did not know how to use the players that he had? How then do you explain the 2 games he won against the Blazers? Luck?

This period was crucial because it is when the coach and the players had to show what they had learned throughout the regular season. Also think about this, had they played those players more, the likes of Allawi, Kawumi, Dauna in that finals and allowed them to learn, wouldn’t it have helped in the following season.

Nonetheless, we never saw all that. Chad and Curry came and did their work and left. There was no improvement in the team and that can partially be blamed on the coach and management.

Signings

Who made the signings that the Oilers made? Was the coach consulted? If not, then they gave him tools and he had to make something out of them. What if he preferred some other players and they weren’t given to him, would you blame him for not delivering the title?

I mean, the City Oilers have plenty of players. Some came after he had been named head coach while others came while he was an assistant. Did he as an individual have a plan for those players? Think about this for a second, you have a player that you don’t want to work with and you can’t do anything about it. That could maybe explain the reason as to why some players were left out in the cold. The other thing to look at is, what is the coach’s philosophy, he at all he had any? Did the players fit his system/ style?

There is a lot to pick from here because the coach had to work with what he had and narrowly fell short of glory. Perhaps the situation could have been different if he had other personnel.

Final Take

The standard at City Oilers has been winning the championship. If you don’t do that, you have not delivered. However, what many have failed to comprehend is the fact that the circumstances have changed. In previous years, the Oilers came into the NBL season as the clear favorites and won. That has not been the case these past 2 years. And when you use this analogy, the Oilers performed as expected.

That being said, was it the problem of the coach? Well. He had his part to play. Particularly in preparing the players he had, to make sure that they delivered. Unfortunately, that did not happen and one of the reasons for that is the fact that City Oilers did not have the quality they possessed in the past. They were not the best team.

The Oilers have to make sure that they have the best personnel in terms of players. Thereafter, the coach can be able to build and refine them as they prepare for the playoffs. However, at the moment, the Oilers are not the best team (in terms of personnel) and whichever coach they bring will not change that.

The part that the coach can tweak is the ability to prepare the players better for the playoffs. However, even if the coach does that, won’t management interfere? We have seen that time and again and I doubt it is about to change.

For Coach Tendo, he has garnered a lot of experience both locally and Internationally and he will be looking take that elsewhere. Hopefully he can leverage his experience to attain success elsewhere.

For the City Oilers, it is a new chapter but seems more like an old chapter. Coach Mandy Juruni, who had been with them for multiple years will take the helm and the Oilers will be hoping that he can take them back to the summit.