Jimmy Enabu believes Uganda has a realistic chance of qualifying for the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup.
National team basketball took a turn in 2014 through a National Team Committee headed by Mohammed Santur and has since made significant strides including playing at back-to-back Afrobasket tournaments in 2015 and 2017.
On court, City Oilers’ guard Jimmy Enabu has been part of the whole journey. The shooting guard turned point guard has put in loads of work that has given birth to a new dream.
Having played at the Champions Cup with his club City Oilers and the Afrobasket with the national side – Silverbacks, Enabu believes Uganda can now look at the FIBA Basketball World Cup.
“It is realistic for us to say that we can qualify for the World Cup. The chances are realistic. There are cinderalla stories. You never know, we could get lucky. We shall definitely work towards that and I think it is possible,” Enabu said in an interview with FIBA.basketball.
Uganda currently sits second in Group B of the first phase of the qualifiers behind Nigeria but the Silverbacks are tied on four points with Mali and Rwanda who occupy third and fourth places.
Enabu averaged 18.0 points after three games in Group B last weekend and only sits just below teammate Robinson Odoch who averaged 21.0 points per game across all the four groups of African Qualifiers.
After keeping up with heavyweights Nigeria throughout the game before falling 102-86, suffering a 79-76 loss at the buzzer to Mali and beating rivals Rwanda 79-63, Silverbacks will fancy their chances of making the final phase of qualifiers when the return legs come around in June.
Reinforcements are expected to be made for the June/July window with Samuel Kalwanyi and Brian Mukasa some of the players expected to be at coach Mandy Juruni’s disposal.
The Silverbacks go into the return legs eyeing to maintain their place among the top three sides in Group B to make the final phase of qualifiers and have a shot at the global showpiece.