Sports
Rivers Hoopers Target 2025 BAL Final
Rivers Hoopers coach Ogoh Odaudu has said the team’s ambition at next year’s Basketball Africa League is to go one better by reaching the final or even win the coveted trophy.
The Nigerian champions finished third at the last edition, setting a Nigerian record.
Having won their sixth national championship, beating Lagos-based Hoops and Read 71-54 to claim the 2024 NBBF Final 8 title, they have qualified for the 2025 BAL and also extended their unbeaten streak in the domestic league to 25 games.
Aside from their push at the club level, Odaudu revealed that BAL president, Amadou Gallo Fall, was impressed by the team’s outing at the 2024 tournament, charging them to build on it.
“Amadou Gallo Fall personally approached me and said, hey, you guys have to go and build on all of this that you just did, otherwise, it will all be a waste,” Hoopers coach Ogoh Odaudu told Tidesports source.
“This is why it is such a great feeling for us to know that we are going back. It means a lot to me because we didn’t want to miss out on qualifying. After all, then it would mean that whatever it is that we achieved the previous BAL was just a fluke. So we really wanted to go back and build on it.”
Odaudu also said the team are poised to keep their influential players like Kelvin Amayo, who won the NBBF Finals MVP, Will Perry, Peter Olisemeka and Devine Eke, now playing in the G-League.
“One of the things we are going to stick with is continuity. You find out that every BAL season, teams come with entirely different teams than they had the previous one.
“We are going to try and limit that as much as possible and come back with almost the same set of people that we used to prosecute the last campaign. It’s not guaranteed that we are sure of them, but we are in talks with them already,” Odaudu said. The only people we are sure of right now are Peter and Kelvin who came to help us qualify.
“Will, of course, was instrumental to our success, but he has a new contract with a team in Dubai, we don’t know what his season is going to end. But then I’m sure that if he is free, he will come and play for us.”
Going into the inaugural BAL tournament in 2020, Hoopers were favoured to do well but ended up eliminated in the group phase. The team now wants to be considered a force on the continent, not just a side that goes to make up the numbers.
“We don’t want to be seen as the usual thing that every time we go to the continent it’s just to come to participate and not to compete,” Odaudu said.
Vice president of the Nigeria Olympics Committee (NOC), Chief Solomon Ogba, foremost Sports Marketer and founder of Okpekpe Road Race, Mike Itemuagbor and top Sports Journalist and Media Strategist, Mitchel Obi have lent their voices in support of the Niger Delta Sports Festival (NDSF).
The personalities with backgrounds in sports administration, marketing and media spoke separately in commendation of the festival, an initiative of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) with Dunamis Icon as consultants.
“This is a positive addition to the evolving sports business ecosystem because it is not just a springboard for identifying talents, it also offers a platform to truly hone the skills of those already discovered”, remarked Obi, who served as Special Advisor to a former Sports Minister, late Anthony Ikhazabor.
He said the festival will be a flagship event in the region that would trigger interest in sports among the youths and people of the region.
Edo State-born Itemuagbor commended the NDDC for the decision to add sports in the list of their intervention projects in the region, adding that: “This speaks directly to the problem of youth restiveness which is of great concern to our people.”
Raphael Onyedika has now emerged as a major doubt for the Super Eagles’ must-win 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Rwanda and Zimbabwe later this month.
The midfielder was forced out early from last week’s league game against Standard Liege.
He has not recovered from the injury and so will miss today’s league match against Gent and may also miss a UEFA Champions League Round of 16 clash against Aston Villa yesterday.
The Super Eagles take on Rwanda in Kigali on March 21, before they face Zimbabwe in Uyo four days later in crucial World Cup qualifiers.
Nigeria’s Super Eagles and Al-Khalood defender, William Troost-Ekong, has shared his experience on the difficulties of winning the prestigious Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) while describing it a must win trophy.
The former Watford FC defender has competed in the tournament three times but has yet to lift the trophy.
“I’ve been there three times now, bronze medal, silver medal, but I haven’t had the chance to win it. That remains my ultimate goal,” he told Tidesports source.
“It means so much to me and all the kids growing up in Africa and Nigeria.”