Ugochukwu Iwuchukwu
Rivers Hoopers head coach Ogoh Odaudu is delighted the NBA Basketball Africa League will now hold in May.
The 12 team tournament was initially scheduled for March 2020 but was postponed indefinitely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Odaudu said: “I am excited like every other person that has been waiting for this announcement. I am looking forward to it holding and not that after a while we will get a disappointment.”
Basketball Africa League has announced that the new tip-off date will be on Sunday, May 16 at the Kigali Arena, Rwanda.
“There is no time any more all we have to do is plan and get the best of foreign players available so that they can help our team.”
The BAL also adjusted the tournament format which will feature a total of 26 games, with 18 group games with the 12 teams divided into three groups of four.
Top eight teams from the group phase will advance to the play-offs which will be single elimination in all three rounds.
The BAL Finals will take place on May 30 at the Kigali Arena.
Odaudu to lead D’Tigers scouting team to NSF
The Nigeria Basketball Federation will be extending its dragnet to the National Sports Festival in its quest to assess domestic players that can add value to the senior men and women national teams.
To this end, the NBBF has announced the secondment of D’Tigers assistant coach, Ogoh Odaudu as Chief Scout for the 2021 NSF holding in Edo.
On the latest decision, NBBF President, Engr Musa Kida said the NBBF is determined as always to give all eligible Nigerians an opportunity to fight for a chance to represent the country whenever possible.
“The festival will give us a chance to evaluate the readiness and suitability of some of our local talents. Due to the peculiar situation, we found ourselves where we could not hold the apex league due to the lawsuit that dragged on for so long.”
“We have seen another opportunity and we hope that the players who will be on display will come with their best game and make it difficult for the Technical Crew to overlook them.”
Appointed in 2019, the former Nigerian international was part of the Technical crew that led the D’Tigers to a decent world cup run while becoming the first African team to book the 2020 Olympics ticket.
Meanwhile, veteran coach and basketball administrator, Andrew Isokpehi was named as Technical Director for the National Sports Festival in Edo.
