The National Basketball League season gets underway on Friday with Betway Power playing a rematch of last season’s final against City Oilers while women champions UCU Lady Canons and A1 Challenge faceoff in the women’s game.
But following a barren six-year spell in which the team has fallen thrice at the final hurdle, Betway Power head coach is calling for calm ahead of the new season.
“Winning the title is always in our hearts, in our minds. It is one of our objectives but we’re taking it as realistically as possible. We decided we are going to take it a game at a time, make a review mid-season then in the second,” stated Betway Power coach Arnold Lando.
His assessment is perhaps understandable having witnessed a number of competitors beef up their rosters ahead of the new season.
“Last year most of the teams were not technically structured. We used to have the known top eight teams that would automatically qualify for the playoffs. But I think it will be no walkover this time.It is going to be ever hard to win the title with all the teams beefing up.,” he added.
His team has not been different with up to five new additions expected at least before the opener against City Oilers.
Former Falcons and UCU guard Sunday Okot as well as Diego Angemi will beef up the backcourt, the latter having been released by KIU Titans.
Others include Athieng Lual and Francis Kasinde who like Angemi will also make a return to the club and power forward Sulaiman Bbaale from Falcons who will provide more options to their frontcourt department.
The situation could be far different from last season with the club now bankrolled by Betway Power who are expected to continue their partnership for the coming season.