Basketball Champions UCU draw tough opponents in AUUS National Games

Uganda Christian University (UCU), the current men’s basketball champions, will play against Makerere University Business School (MUBS), Makerere University, Uganda Martyrs University (UMU), and Kampala University as they aim to defend their title.

The matchups were set yesterday at the AUUS offices in Mengo during the games’ draws conducted by the AUUS Vice President-Technical, Samuel Lukaire, who was in the company of General Secretary Patrick Ssebuliba, treasurer Brian Miiro Nsubuga, Innocent Komakech, and Adam Kato.

UCU, who beat Ndejje 109-78 in the last final, are in Group A. Group B includes Kampala International University (KIU), Mountains of the Moon University, Gulu University, and Victoria University for the 20th edition of the games.

The women’s tournament will feature seven teams. Defending champions UCU Lady Canons are in Group A with the last finalists, MUBS, along with Kyambogo and Kampala University. Group B has Victoria University, Nkumba University, and Makerere University.

The football action will have 14 teams, which were drawn in three groups, with the defending champions, UMU, drawn against Nkumba, Soroti, Makerere, and Kyambogo. Group B features the Islamic University in Uganda (IUIU), Lira University, MUBS, KIU, and Bishop Stuart University, while Group C has Bugema, Kampala University, UCU, and St. Lawrence University (SLAU).

The Women’s Football championship will be determined through a round-robin format, having attracted only four teams: UCU, Makerere, Kampala University, and Nkumba. Netball has three groups, with the defending champions, Victoria University, pitted against Nkumba, Bishop Stuart, and SLAU, while Group B has Kampala University (KU), Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST), Makerere, and Kyambogo. Group C will feature UCU, MUBS, Bugema, and Gulu universities.

In volleyball, the defending champions, UCU, will fight it out against Kampala International University (KIU) and KU in Group A, while Group B has Bugema, MUST, Bishop Stuart, and Makerere. The women’s action has attracted six teams: UCU, BSU, and MUBS in Group A, while KU, Kyambogo, and Makerere are in Group B.

Handball action will have 7 men’s teams and 8 women’s teams in contention in two groups in each gender. The men’s Group A will feature Ndejje, KU, and MUST, while Makerere, IUIU, UCU, and Kyambogo will battle in Group B. Victoria, IUIU, Ndejje, and Kyambogo will vie for honours in Group A in the women’s handball, while KU, Makerere, Nkumba, and UCU are in Group B.

After the draws, Ssebuliba said the basketball men's and women's finals, the volleyball men's and women's finals, and the netball women's finals will be played on the last day of the event.

“Tonight, we shall release the activity schedule for all the sports events, highlighting when the events will start and when the events will end, because not all the events will be for five days,” he said.

“We are requesting that the coordinators from the federations ensure that the referees arrive at the venue on the eve of their respective games because our fixtures will be respected. All games must start as and when the fixtures dictate. For the other draws, we shall make them on Thursday, because the majority of these are individual events.”

He asked teams that have swimmers and athletic students to submit their individual entries per event for purposes of the technical coordination.

Lukaire implored the participants to come in early and look at their fixtures and plan accordingly to avoid any unnecessary delays so that the Games can run as scheduled.

“We are now at the tail end of setting up the facilities, and we believe that by the time the Games begin, starting with the arrivals tomorrow, all facilities will be ready for both practice and also for competition,” Lukaire stated.