After Tiger Head Power’s off-season business, I tipped them to highly contend for this year’s championship (and haven’t changed). Power entered the basketball year with high expectations – to make the playoffs in style and made some noise when their season tipped off.
The five-time champions blew out Nkumba Marines 95-44 for a statement! City Oilers were next in Power’s way and Oilers edged Power 82-81. Well, that was Ok and Power put up quite a show. City Oilers did not win the game, Power lost that game – if you know what I mean.
Now, after a significant number of games have passed (actually it is half season), Power is not looking anything like we expected them to. Having filled up all the spaces on FUBA’s official team sheet, you would think Power have got enough players to rotate and good enough to win every basketball game in the league but they are losing (or should I say they have lost) games they naturally should win easily, and playing unlike they should be playing. Far from perfection we all thought would be on display. Coach Bernes Akunda admits his team is not playing well. “We are not playing particularly well” he says.
If your thesaurus is inadequate and guide to idioms as insufficient as mine, then no single word or phrase can properly capture the sudden, inexplicable hideousness of star-stuffed Tiger Head Power.
Barnes Akunda is frustrated. He says it all comes down to his players not being in the game. “It is the players’ mentality,” Akunda told Kawowo Sports. “These guys sometimes are never in the game. They are mature and you expect them to do certain things, make the right decisions on the court,” he adds.
So what else is not right with Tiger Head Power apart from the mentality the coach talks about?
Obviously, no loss is a good thing, but some are better or let’s say at least more acceptable – than others. Power is 7-4 at half season good enough for third place. Did they lose to top-level NBL teams certainly headed to the playoffs, or have they lost to marginal teams or just plain bad ones?
Power has lost to City Oilers, Vegetarian, Charging Rhinos, and most recently Warriors. One reason Akunda advances for losing is complacence. “Some of the games we have lost have come down to pure complacence. Guys play as they like, careless with the ball – turnover after turnover,” he says. And then there are those that have gone bad because of Philip Ameny’s absence?
Secondly, Akunda points to role-playing. “Some of these guys are not playing the roles assigned to them on the game day. When I assign a role in a game you have to forget about every other you played. The games are different.”
We have always known Power to be a quick transition team. Joseph Ikong, a nearly life-long Power player, at the start of the season said the arrival of new players won’t change the team’s philosophy. Probably it has not changed but there is some real deviation and Bernes Akunda knows it. As a matter of fact, you can’t see beyond Paul Odong for a Power player who puts in a constant effort each game day. You wouldn’t be wrong to say he is the only player who doesn’t want and deserve to be on the losing end on a weekly basis.
“We are yet to establish our identity yet. Our identity has been intensity and we want it to be that. We want to do primary breaks, then secondary breaks and if those fail then we go for the set plays,” Akunda says.
Will everything come into place for Power?
Sometimes teams are able to shake off these bumpy starts, while other times they are indicators of significant problems that are going to plague the team throughout the season. Of course, Power has the ability to shake off these mixed performances but clearly, there is something not right with this side – something that may plague this team throughout this year.
Akunda says it has to start with getting heads back. “We have to be humble again, get back the right mentality, and move on. We want to come back in the second round much different. ”
Power has not been fluid even at best to outclass opponents. Of course, they lost Ben Komakech during the off-season and Emmanuel Enabu towards the end of last season. The pair was replaced by veteran Abdulahi Ramadhan and Ivan Enabu in futility, and Tony Olila? While Norman Blick and Joseph Ikong have pretty fine handles, they can only play off the ball and Akunda can’t put them at the point.
“We are getting another point guard to help Dullah. Norman, Ikong can all handle the ball but I cannot trust them with it. These three weeks will help us work on a few things and get better as we prepare for the Zone 5 as well.”
