NATIONAL Basketball League (NBL) men’s champions JKT of Dar es Salaam are set to meet early this year, to evaluate their last year’s performance and plan for better 2020.
JKT team manager Jose Ngowi told the ‘Sunday News’ in Dar es Salaam yesterday that they have not set a date but will meet any time this month.
“After the team was bundled out in the second round of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) qualifiers tournament in Kigali, Rwanda last month, we need to go through the report and see areas to improve, so that we can build stronger team for this year event,” he said.
JKT won one of the four wild cards place after finishing third in the BAL first round Group D battle that was hosted at the National Indoor Stadium in Dar es Salaam from October 16 to 20th last year, to make it into the last 16 teams that went through to the second round.
The 16 teams were drawn in two groups of eight players each, with JKT placed in East Zone Group H that their battle was held from December 17 to 22nd last year in Kigali.
They compete with teams like Patriots BBC (Rwanda), CITY Oilers (Uganda), Ferroviario Maputo (Mozambique), G.N.B.C (Madagascar), K.P.A (Kenya), UNZA Pacers (Zambia), Cobra Sport (South Sudan) for three final slots but they could not make it past the group stage.
“We will meet soon this month to evaluate our performance, achievement and weaknesses too,” said Ngowi, who could not travel with the team in Kigali due to other responsibilities. “We need to come up with concrete strategies for the better future, we would like to play in the BAL final and this is possible only with better plans,” he said.
Ngowi added that since JKT again is a national champion and have secured another BAL qualification next year, they have to learn through last years’ experience and do something that can help the team push even more next season.
JKT have wonderful players who can take the team to another level like Baraka Sadiki, who was the BAL top scorer for first qualifying Africa groups’ battle and Stephen Mshana, who emerged BAL Africa second in assists.
