While the women’s 2016 National Basketball League championship has been decided, following UCU Ladies’ 4-3 aggregate victory over KCCA Leopards in the best of seven play-off final series, the play-off Most Valuable Player (MVP) remains a mystery, as JOHN VIANNEY NSIMBE reports………
After what had been a grueling final from November 20 to December 9, the coaches of KCCA, Timothy Odeke and UCU’s Nick Natuhereza chose to give off some steam on Monday. Odeke was watching the volleyball finals game two between Ndejje University and Nkumba University.
Natuhereza, on the other hand, was watching coaches of other sports disciplines at UCU, conduct training of their charges, as they prepare for the University games later this month. It is clear both these coaches’ minds were far off basketball.
However, one basketball conversation that should interest them, like many basketball fans, is who the women’s basketball playoffs MVP is. Odeke was quite candid in his observation of whom, in his book, killed his team’s chances of bagging this year’s title: “Of course to me, Judith Nansobya, Ritah Imanishimwe and Vilma Achieng were instrumental in UCU’s success.”
Without the aforementioned three, Odeke emphasized, KCCA would have been home and dry easily. In fact, Odeke added that each of the three times his team won, it had everything to do with restricting Nansobya, Imanishimwe and Achieng from playing their best.
In game three, when KCCA registered its first win in the finals, Nansobya scored 13 points while Imanishimwe and Achieng registered 11 and 7 respectively. In game four, Imanishimwe had 11 points while Nansobya and Achieng had 10 and 12 respectively. And in game five, save for Nansobya who notched 15 points, Achieng and Imanishimwe posted 6 and 8 points.
Against that statistic, Odeke argued that the scoring consistency of Nansobya always made the difference for UCU. And therefore, without her, he doubts they would have won the championship. So, that makes her the MVP in Odeke’s view.
Actually, Nansobya scored 108 points in the seven games for her team. That was the highest by any player in those series. But does out-scoring others alone, make one an MVP? Not exactly according to Natuhereza: “The best team is one that has the best balance on offence and defence.
This is a view Tom Ocamringa, a former coach of Nkumba Marins agrees with. He explained that while the scoring statistic is what makes it easy for many basketball fans to follow, it cannot stand alone without other technical aspects being considered.
But a range of other issues regarding a player, say, assists, rebounds and inspiration to others, is crucial too. And that is where KCCA’s centre, Martha Soigi enters the fray. Not only did Soigi match Nansobya with 108 points too in the seven game final, she registered 67 rebounds, making her a top cog in the greater scheme of things- KCCA’s defence.
Nansobya only registered 22 rebounds. This means she was less influential in defence. But as much as Ocamringa was impressed by Soigi’s overall influence in keeping KCCA toe-to-toe with UCU both on the front and back court, the former Charging Rhinos guard believes the MVP award must always go to winners, period.
He explained that if a runner-up becomes MVP, then the value of the award is watered down: “Athletes have got to aspire and be as competitive as possible and win, before they can be recognized as MVPs. This is the only way to keep that crown prestigious and coveted.”
That leaves the UCU players especially Nansobya in good position to bag it. However, as Ocamringa said, basketball championships are not necessarily decided by the player who scores most points. But one whose overall game, including the character to lift her team, counts.
Although Nansobya scored a lot, when push came to shove, especially in pressure moments, where solid defending and proper game management was needed, she fizzled. Yet, Imanishimwe, whom Ocamringa thinks was quite erratic and sometimes played in an unorthodox manner, wore her heart on the sleeve to lift UCU.
For example, she was instrumental in marking Flavia Oketcho, Maureen Amoding and even Soigi, the key players of KCCA. Notably, one of the things KCCA’s post players, Soigi and Mayimuna Namuwaya did so well in the series, was to limit the effectiveness of UCU’s post players, Vilma Achieng and Sarah Ageno both on offence and defence.
It is an approach that worked, to get them within one game for the championship. But in stepped Imanishimwe, who as a small-forward, did a lot of defensive work, recording 42 rebounds in the series, and in the process stifled the KCCA threat.
And as seen in game seven, when the pressure got to Nansobya, restricting her to only 26 minutes of the 40 designated for a game, Imanishimwe stood out when it mattered most. She defended more doggedly than anyone on her team, including 18 steals from Nansobya’s 12.
Yet even on offence, Imanishimwe was remarkable, scoring 93 points, 15 less than Nansobya’s, though. But on the balance of play, Imanishimwe had the more rounded game, that any coach, if not the MVP award, would love to associate with.
jovi@observer.ug