Handling University of Ghana’s basketball team will not be a “big deal” according to Marshalls University College head coach James Okine. The celebrated coach made the statement ahead of the highly anticipated matchup between the two teams in Zone G qualifiers of the 2016 Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges (UPAC) Basketball Championship.
The latest round of qualifiers of Ghana’s biggest tertiary basketball competition will take place at the University of Ghana (UG) where the hosts will be up against Marshalls, Central University College and Wisconsin University College for top spot in the zone.
Okine, who recently guided Marshalls to the Private Universities Students Association Games (PUSAG) Basketball title, also cited revenge as the main motivation going into the championship qualifiers. He said:
“Legon (UG) is not a big deal at all, Central beat us last year and we are focusing o them. As Legon, is coming for revenge we are also going for revenge.”
All four teams were drawn in the same zone in last year’s edition where Marshalls University suffered a 30-36 before a pair of impressive wins against Wisconsin and UG saw them through into the quarters.
Marshalls had a wonderful debut in last year’s edition by beating favourites UG to qualify into the quarters on the way to capturing a famous fourth place finish. Should the team fail to win the zone, it will have a chance to make the quarters virtue of being the best second placed team between Zones A, F and G respectively.
The 2016 UPAC Championship is headlined by Rexona, supported by Fanyogo, MTN and CAL Bank in partnership with Basketballghana.com, Y FM, TV3 and Ghana Sports.
