Tag: Africa League

Just over two weeks after their quarter-final exit at the Basketball Africa League (BAL) Season five, Head Coach of Nigerian champions Rivers Hoopers, Ogoh Odaudu has shed some light about what went wrong during the team’s outing in Pretoria, South Africa. Having recorded a 4-2 win-loss ratio from the Kalahari Conference phase, the six-time Nigerian Basketball League champions entered the BAL Season five Playoffs in Pretoria, South Africa, as the fourth ranked team and full of optimism to better their achievements from previous appearances. However, consecutive losses to Tunisian outfit US Monastir in a seeding game (89-81), and Rwanda’s APR in the quarter-finals (104-73) meant the KingsMen exited the tournament earlier than expected. Speaking for the first time since their BAL Season five journey, Odaudu reflected on the team’s experience through the tournament, describing it as “bittersweet”. “BAL Season five was both good and bad. It was fantastic when we went to Morocco, we did everything right; Won the games we were supposed to and came second in the conference. However, in Pretoria, things fell apart. Some players fell sick, the chemistry we thought we had, we just didn’t show up. So it was kind of bittersweet at the same time. But in all, we give God all the glory.” he said. For the first time since its inaugural edition, the BAL Playoffs moved from Kigali’s BK Arena to the SunBet Arena in Pretoria. Having played at both venues, the seasoned basketball tactician commended the facility and atmosphere at the Season five Playoffs. “It doesn’t matter where you play the playoffs, whether it’s in Pretoria or in Kigali, it’s the same thing. It’s still basketball. The crowd in Pretoria was really energetic. I think they were both similar as regards their support for basketball, so it was good. And then the facilities were also top-notch,” he added. Rivers Hoopers made history by becoming the first (and only) Nigerian team to score a podium finish at Africa’s club basketball showpiece, when they finished third during BAL Season four, but fell short of matching that feat a year later. While dismissing any notion that the team was perhaps not up for the challenge in Pretoria, Odaudu shed some light on what went wrong for the KingsMen. “What went wrong? It was just one of those days. We just didn’t have a good final and I don’t think it’s anything unusual. There are teams who are bigger, who have been older and who have been there more times than us, who were sent packing the next day too.” he stated. He further explained that key members of the team had caught a bug just before the team’s quarter-final meeting with Rwanda’s APR, which limited their overall performance. “The actual fact was that most of the team fell sick in Pretoria. We were just barely managing with what we had. We were all ready for the BAL. We all arrived on time, we all practiced hard, but then the virus or something that started within the team was a major contributing factor [to our early exit],” he stressed. The veteran Nigerian coach however pointed out that his side will look to make the most of their BAL Season five experience in order to return to the podium at Africa’s premier club basketball tournament. “Like I said, we didn’t have a good [showing at the] playoffs this year but we are hoping to bounce back and learn from all the mistakes that we did [in Pretoria].”

Rivers Hoopers Head Coach, Ogoh Odaudu, has stated that his team has what it takes to do better than last year’s outing, at the Basketball Africa League (BAL) Season 5..Rivers Hoopers will be involved in the first game at BAL season five, when they take on Stade Malien in the Kalahari Conference opener in Rabat, Morocco on Saturday, 5th April. The reigning Nigerian champions, who have been in closed camping for two weeks, arrived Rabat on Wednesday, ahead of Saturday’s opening game. Speaking on the team’s preparations so far, the BAL season four Coach of The Year, said “Training has gone well so far, we’ve been working very hard for the past two weeks and we’ve made tremendous progress.” Rivers Hoopers became the first Nigerian side to score a podium finish at BAL when they placed third last year, and while the team aims to do better this season, Coach Ogoh Odaudu insisted that the team’s immediate focus is to qualify for the playoffs which takes place in South Africa later this year. “Every tournament is just like an examination, you want to do better than the previous year. We came third last year, but we do not want to jump far ahead of ourselves. Our goal right now is to qualify from Morocco to the finals in South Africa, and then afterwards we can dream of something else. But right now we’re not thinking so far ahead, we want to be one of the two teams to qualify for South Africa at the end [of the Kalahari Conference].” he said. He however acknowledged the level of difficulty posed by the other teams at BAL by saying “It’s really difficult, right from qualifying from Nigeria. Now everybody knows our name in Africa now, the Rivers Hoopers, so it’s going to be twice as difficult as it was last season. Nobody’s going to underrate Nigeria anymore. They know what we can do. We drew a huge target on our back [last season] and people will be aiming for us now. But we’re just going to play our basketball and hopefully at the end of the day, qualify [for the playoffs].” As part of BAL requirements, Rivers Hoopers secured the signatures of Point Guard, Maxi Shamba (Congo DR), Forwards Madut Akec (South Sudan) and Raphiael Putney (USA), while retaining the services of Kelvin Amayo and Peter Olisemeka who helped the Kings Men win the Nigeria Premier Basketball League title last year, and BAL elevate youngster David Ugonna, who was also part of the Rivers Hoopers team at BAL season four. Despite the absence of sharpshooting Will Perry, the tireless Devine Eke, and the experienced John Wilkins who were among the team’s top performers last year, Coach Ogoh Odaudu thinks his current crop of players are equal to the task. He said “It’s a quite different team; we have a new point guard (Maxi Shamba), we have Rahpiael Putney who’s almost 7-foot tall and can shoot the lights out every court. We also have Madut Akec who I think is an upgrade of what we had last year. So I think the team is good to go. I am not one to single out players, I’m a team player, and the whole team is equally important for what we hope to achieve.”