THE City Oilers have been a dominant team in their national league. As they gear up for Season 4 of the Basketball Africa League (BAL), will they be competitive on the continental stage?
The Big Tip Off previews the Oilers ahead of the BAL.
Team: City Oilers
Country: Uganda
History: The club was founded in 2011 by a group of friends and has subsequently won nine Ugandan National Basketball League (NBL) titles, the most by any club in the East African country. The Oilers have participated in the FIBA Africa Clubs Championship once, under the name “Warriors” and secured 9th position in that tournament. The City Oilers engaged in The Road to BAL twice (2019 and 2022) where they failed to qualify. However, they qualified in the 2023 Road to BAL.
In their debut appearance (2019), the Ugandan side only managed to win one game out of the five. They finished sixth in the Nile Conference and did not progress beyond the group stages.
Route To BAL: The City Oilers showed improvement in their second qualification for the BAL at the end of November in Johannesburg, South Africa. They finished second in the Elite 16, Division East, behind the Cape Town Tigers.
Coach: Andrew Tendo was recently been appointed the new head coach for the Oilers. Tendo previously was an assistant to the former coach, Mandy Juruni, who joined Rwandan side Kepler University. Tendo has been a part of the team for quite some time and contributed to three of the nine NBL titles won by the Oilers. His familiarity with the team should make his transition smooth. The first-year head coach will have his work cut out for him ahead of the BAL. However, he has a chance to find his feet as the NBL season tipped off last month.
Star Player: Parish Petty emerged as the star player for the Oilers during their Road to BAL campaign. Petty was impactful with the distribution and sharing of the ball, an issue the Oilers have struggled with in the past and has cost them dearly.
The guard’s unselfish style of play complements the team’s core. He averaged 18 points, 5.4 rebounds per game, 3.4 steals per game, and three assists per game. Petty led all guards in The Road to BAL in the efficiency category, with a rating of 19.3 per game, which speaks volumes of how valuable of an asset he is for the Oilers.
