Uganda basketball coach disappears in US during 10-day training course

Assistant coach of Uganda’s national basketball team, Gad Eteu, has disappeared in the US.

Ivan Ntabazi, the spokesperson for the Federation of Uganda Basketball Association told Xinhua on Thursday that since Eteu went for a 10-day training course in the US early this month, he has failed to return and also failed to communicate.

“We think he has vanished because he also did not attend the basketball training camp in Cleveland, Ohio,” said a disappointed Ntabazi.


Eteu had travelled together with head coach Mande Juruni for the course which was part of the World Youth Sports Festival and organised by the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission. Ntabazi said they will keep waiting to see if Eteu returns because then this is going to set a bad precident since he had traveled for a Basketball mission.

He added that they have now started looking for another assistant coach for the team as it prepares to take part in the Afrobasket Championships slated for August 19-30 in Nabeal, Tunisia.

The head coach Juruni told Xinhua that he has maintained experienced Steven Omony as the captain. “We have named a strong 21-man provision team that has started training and we expect the professional players to join on Sunday,” said Juruni.

Uganda has been drawn against hosts Tunisia, Nigeria and the Central African Republic will tip off against Tunisia on the August 19 at the El Menzah Sport Palace. According to the fixture released by the FIBA Africa Central Board Uganda will then face Nigeria two days later before completing the preliminaries against the Central African Republic on August 23.

The Central African Republic, Algeria and Senegal are the three recipients of wild cards to take part in the AfroBasket 2015. Ambrose Tashobya, the Fuba President told Xinhua that they have been assured of security by the hosts despite a terrorist attack in one of cities in Tunisia recently.

Besides title holders Angola, the other nations that will take part in the championship include Egypt, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Mozambique, Gabon, Zimbabwe and Cape Verde.