In the wake of their quarter-final exit from the Basketball Africa League (BAL) Season 5, Ogoh Odaudu, head coach of Nigerian champions Rivers Hoopers, has provided insight into the challenges faced by the team during their campaign in Pretoria, South Africa.
After achieving a commendable 4-2 win-loss record in the Kalahari Conference phase, the six-time Nigerian Basketball League champions entered the BAL Season Five Playoffs as the fourth-ranked team, brimming with confidence to surpass their previous performances. However, hopes were dashed following consecutive losses to Tunisian side US Monastir in a seeding game (89-81) and Rwanda’s APR in the quarter-finals (104-73), leading to an earlier-than-anticipated exit from the tournament.
Reflecting on the team’s experiences for the first time since their departure from the competition, Odaudu described the overall journey as “bittersweet”. “BAL Season Five was both good and bad. Our time in Morocco was fantastic; we performed well, winning the games we needed and finishing second in the conference. However, in Pretoria, things unraveled. Some players fell ill, and the chemistry we thought we had just didn’t materialise. It was bittersweet, but we give God all the glory,” he remarked.
This year marked a significant change, as the BAL Playoffs moved from Kigali’s BK Arena to Pretoria’s SunBet Arena.
Having experienced both venues, Odaudu praised the facilities and atmosphere present during this year’s playoffs. “It doesn’t matter where you play the playoffs, whether it’s in Pretoria or Kigali, it’s still basketball. The crowd in Pretoria was incredibly energetic. Both venues offered similar support for the sport, and the facilities were top-notch,” he added.
Rivers Hoopers made history by becoming the first Nigerian team to finish on the podium at Africa’s premier club basketball tournament, securing third place in BAL Season Four. However, they were unable to replicate that success this year. Odaudu dismissed suggestions that his team was unprepared for the challenge in Pretoria, explaining that unforeseen circumstances contributed to their performance. “What went wrong? It was just one of those days. We simply did not have a good final match, which isn’t unusual in sports. There are larger, more experienced teams that faced similar fates,” he stated.
He further revealed that a number of key players fell ill just prior to the quarter-final clash with APR, which hampered their overall performance. “The reality was that many of the team were unwell in Pretoria. We were barely managing with what we had. We arrived on time and trained hard, but a virus that spread within the team was a major factor in our early exit,” he stressed.
Despite the disappointment, the veteran coach remains hopeful that his team will learn from this experience and strive to return to the podium in future BAL tournaments. “As I mentioned, we didn’t perform well in the playoffs this year, but we aim to bounce back and learn from our mistakes in Pretoria,” he concluded.
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