Afrobasket 2015 - Nigeria on the march to elusive first African Title

Afrobasket 2015: Nigeria looking to overcome 2013 heartbreak with a first African title.
2013 was meant to be the year that Nigeria finally harnessed its large pool of eligible talent and waltzed its way to an elusive African title.


A hard earned 2012 Olympic qualification meant that some frontline Nigerian-American talent were now considering the country for their national team careers. Long-term Nigeria captain Ime Udoka had just been hired as an assistant coach for the San Antonio Sputs, widely considered as the NBA’s best run organisation. Along with Toronto Raptors GM, Masai Ujiri, Udoka was expected to assist with convincing undecided players and provide assistance to the basketball federation where possible.



Then it all went wrong, and pretty quickly too. National team coach, Ayo Bakare, fell out with Mfon Udoka (long term women’s captain, assistant women’s coach and Ime’s sister) and this cascaded to his relationship with Ime. This rift was reportedly responsible for some curious withdrawals close to the tournament. In addition to the withdrawal of key players like Derrick Obasohan, Chamberlain Oguchi was suspended by FIBA from participating in the tournament, and could not be replaced on the team. Compounding Nigeria’s woes were injuries to Guard Richard Oruche and forward Andy Ogide very early in the tournament. With valuable roster spots also taken by two players (the token home based player and a captain past his prime) who could not contribute any valuable minutes against serious opposition, it meant Nigeria was effectively using a 7 player rotation (of 12 selected players) in the tournament.

It seemed the zeal and talent of the ‘core seven’ would still be enough to carry Nigeria to the title, as the team easily overran all opposition, till it met Senegal in the Quarter Finals. Nigeria’s superior talent was not in doubt in the first quarter as the team built up a double digit lead. Then the Senegalese coach pulled off a masterstroke that exposed Nigeria’s short bench and lack of outside shooting, by changing his defensive formation to a zone from the conventional man-to-man, and slowly chipped away at Nigeria’s large lead.



The pain of the 1 point loss to Senegal remains fresh in the minds of all lovers of Nigerian basketball, especially the players who were denied the opportunity to showcase their skills on a global stage. A silver lining is that major stakeholders in Nigerian basketball seem to have used the disappointment of 2013 to fuel a determination to put the house in order to ensure that Nigeria wins Afrobasket 2015 and secures an automatic qualification to the 2016 Olympics.

A major step in this regard was the recent hiring of William Voigt, a basketball coaching thoroughbred, as national team coach. Voigt’s passion for basketball has seen him in roles including starting his career with an NBA team as a video coordinator, a college head coach, a head coach in the NBDL, and coaching stints in Norway and China. He has previously worked with Masai Ujuri and Ike Diogu (the leader and best player in the Nigerian team) and thus will have some insight on the Nigerian team. He probably realizes that success with Nigeria will open major doors (NBA?) for him, and his contract stipulates he has to win at Afrobasket to get a shot at coaching Nigeria in the Olympics.



Despite the absence of major eligible talent (including Rasheed Sulaimon, Victor Oladipo and Festus Ezeli), Coach Voigt should be able to able to select a formidable team of 12 from the shortlist of 26 players he has invited. The team had a short camp in Abuja before heading out to France, where it has won two preparatory games.



Nigerian basketball fans are once again excited and expectant. Everything seems to be coming together for that Afrobasket title and a good run in the Olympics. Surely, nothing can go wrong now, we hope.



Afrobasket 2015 will hold in Tunisia from August 20-30. Nigeria has been grouped with Tunisia, Uganda and Central African Republic in Group A. The games will be broadcast live in Nigeria on Supersport.

Thanks to teamnigeriabasketball.com for the great ‘prep rally’