Sports
Basketball: All Star Game Excites Hoopers’ Coach
Rivers Hoopers Coach, Ogoh Odaudu, says he is excited with his leadership of the Atlantic Conference teams at the ongoing 2017 Kwese Premier Basketball League (KPBL) All Star Weekend game in Kano.
Odaudu made the assertion in a statement by Queen John, the club’s Media Officer in Port Harcourt on Wednesday.
The statement said that though the Atlantic Conference selected side lost to Savannah Conference 106-115, he had fun with the game in Kano on June 17.
“It was great being at the All Star teams again. I’ve not been there for a couple of years so it was fun.
“We had fun out there even though we lost, it was still fun, and this is my fourth appearance at the All Star Weekend game as a coach,’’ it said.
It added that Odaudu believed that the disparity in the quality of players in the Savannah and the Atlantic Conference led to his team’s loss.
“The result showed that Savannah had better players than us in the Atlantic Conference and with home court advantage.
“The person who won the dunk, dunked better, the person who won the three points shot made more baskets than people from our side, so everything worked in their favour.
“Don’t forget they were playing in the core north; they are at home, headquarters of basketball so they didn’t want to give up anything for us, but all in all it was good.
“The Benue-born gaffer thinks his Hoopers players had an outstanding game and would have easily been crowned the Most Valuable Player of the game if they had won,’’ it added.
According to the statement, Hoopers’ Solomon Ajegbeyi took his impressive form into the All Star Weekend game with another double-double performance, scoring 28 points and 15 rebounds while Emmanuel Balogun contributed 17 points and 2 assists.
“Emmanuel Balogun and Solomon Ajegbeyi stood out, and if we had won the All Star game, one of the two would have won the Most Valuable Player (MVP).
“Even without a prize given, it was fun, the crowd had fun, it was interesting, it was intense, it was just a 9 points game you could see it was very close.
“And not a normal blow out where they blow 15, 20 points. It was just 9 points and it was fun for everybody,’’ the statement said.
It quoted Odaudu as saying: “The result of the All Star Weekend will not be a reflection of the 2017 KPBL final.
“I don’t think it will be like that, it won’t be dominated by the north, and there are a couple of teams that will give Savannah a lot of fight’’.
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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