National Basketball team off to Senegal

2017 Afrobasket (men)

Dates: September 8-18

Host Cities: Tunis & Dakar

Group A: Nigeria, DR Congo, Mali & Cote d'Ivoire

Group B: Angola, CAR, Morocco & Uganda

Group C: Tunisia, Guinea, Rwanda & Cameroon

Group D: Senegal, Mozambique, Egypt & South Africa

Uganda's schedule

Sept 8 v Angola

Sept 9 v CAR

Sept 10 v Morocco

Training camp

Host: Alexandria

Dates: August 25 - September 6

Friendlies

Uganda v Egypt (27 & 29 August)

The Uganda Silverbacks are off to Dakar, through Alexandria, for the 2017 Afrobasket Championship.

 State minister for higher education Chrysostom Muyingo flags off the team. PHOTOS: Mpalanyi Ssentongo 

The national men's basketball team were officially flagged off this afternoon by state minister for higher education Chrysostom Muyingo at the headquarters of the National Council of Sports and immediately headed to the airport for the flight to Egypt.

"Go and represent us well," said Muyingo. "Be very disciplined because when people see you we want to think well of Uganda."

The Silverbacks don't play their first Afrobasket game till September 8, when they face pretournament favourites Angola, but they are hoping to make the most of the next two weeks getting ready. 

They will spend a 10-day camp in Alexandria to allow incoming head coach George Galanapolous a chance to blend his players, which include nine locally-based and four coming from North America, into a cohesive unit.

This will be Uganda's second appearance at the continental showpiece, their first coming two years ago in Tunisia. They finished 15th out of 16 teams.

National team squad

S. Omony, J. Ikong, J. Enabu, B. Komakech, J. Okello, J. Egau, C. Kiviri, J. Otim, S. Mugerwa S. Ociti, S. Kalwanyi, A. Pegues & R. Odoch.