Ulinzi Warriors turn focus on BAL preps and league title defence

Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) men’s league champions Ulinzi Warriors are still the team to beat in the premier league as coach William Balozi remains focused on guiding his charges to a successful league title defence as well as success on the continental scene. 

Warriors are set to represent the country in the 2022 Basketball Africa League (BAL), the second edition of the Africa club basketball championship run by the NBA Africa. The qualifiers for the continental championship are scheduled to throw off in October to select six teams that will join the six automatically qualified ones for the final championship set for next year. 12 teams will compete in the final phase.

Warriors will be in action in the qualification phase from 26 to 31 October in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. Balozi’s men, meanwhile, continue to dominate the local league, their loss away to Kisumu Lakeside the only dent in an otherwise perfect run on their way to their second title in a row.

Over the weekend, Warriors completed a double against title-hopefuls Equity Bank, in a match delayed for two hours as there were no referees to officiate the match. The military side dispensed the bankers 86-58 (26-16, 18-20, 29-12, 13-10) on Saturday before coming from five points down to beat varsity side Pirates 61-50 (09-14, 16-13, 23-08, 13-15) on Sunday for their 13th win in 14 matches. 

“We have a target on our backs as long as we lead the standings, on top of being the title holders, so every match is just as important and taken as seriously as the other. The target is to finish the regular league top of the table so that we have an advantage whatever format the federation decides to take as far as the playoffs are concerned.

We also have the BAL qualifiers coming up and we continue to prepare knowing the competition will definitely be tougher and we will be representing a larger community there,” said Balozi. 

The tactician is buoyed by the return of team forward John Washika and point guard Tiberious Menya who have missed out on action due to work commitments. With the team not in action this weekend, the two will have two and one week/s respectively to train with the rest of the squad before their next league assignment. 

“I always believe in my squad no matter who is missing on our team sheet on particular days and they do not disappoint. It is the nature of our job. Having the two back in our books is a welcome boost to our targets. We will, however, miss the services of Collins Muliro for the foreseeable future as he is away on other military duties,” Balozi explained.

Meanwhile, the league organization continues to experience uncertainty as teams fail to honour matches. As per the latest standings released on 19 September, Embakasi Youth (EMYBA) had played five matches and unconfirmed reports indicate the team has been dropped from the league leaving the men’s premier league with 11 teams. The women’s team has been reduced to ten teams from the usual 12 in the absence of Riara University and United States International University (USIU) whose teams have reportedly been disbanded. 

The problems run deeper in the lower leagues with the men’s division one witnessing an unprecedented situation where only five of 12 teams are playing. With the premier league reduced to 11 teams, three are likely to be promoted to the top tier leaving the division one tier with two teams and thus prompting the promotion of ten from division two that currently has 11 teams as per the latest rankings.