2013 Women’s Afrobasket: Nnaji Aims High With D’Tigress

For Nigeria’s women’s national team, Maputo was the place where their glory days started a decade ago following a 69-63 continental championship win over hosts Mozambique.

That moment survived for two more years as Nigeria clinched their second African title at the 2005 AfroBasket for Women held on home soil in Abuja.

Later this summer, they will return to Maputo with the top two places of the 12-team 2013 AfroBasket for Women in their sights.

Despite the disappointing showing in recent years that saw the team drop six places in the FIBA Ranking Women, Scott Nnaji, the team’s head coach, believes they can do better than the fourth-place finish earned two years ago.

For Nnaji, the equation is simple: To play well, qualify for the second round of the tournament and then play their “best basketball to qualify for world championship”, he told FIBA.com.

But first Nigeria will have to pass the Group B test against Angola, Mali, Kenya, Cape Verde and Cameroon.

The good thing for Nigeria, Nnaji insists, is that they are “not going as a top team and our opponents will be looking at us differently.”

The coach is aware of the task ahead and is expecting to count with the services of some members of the team that lost 71-62 to Mali in the Third-Place Game of the 2011 AfroBasket Women.

Among those players, Nnaji has pre-selected foreign-based Helen Ogunjimi, Rosalyn Fatima Gold-Onwude, Sarah Imovbioh, Chinyere Ibekwe, Tolu Omotola, Sarah Ogoke, Rashidat Sadiq, Ndidi Madu, Sandra Udobi and Kikelomo Rafiu.

A group of six home-based players is expected to join the team that will gather for a training camp from 27 August to 3 September in Abuja.

“We want to blend foreign-based and home players together. Everyone deserves a chance,” Nnaji said.

Three months ago, the country’s basketball federation thought Nnaji’s international experience could be of valuable importance to revitalise the women’s team.

He coached the team that won the country its second gold medal in 2005, and served as an assistant coach to Sam Vincent at the 2006 FIBA World Championship for Women in Brazil.

Nnaji was also a member of the coaching staff at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Unlike their African rivals, Nigeria’s women’s national team lost ground and are currently fourth highest ranked African team (26) behind Mali (17), Senegal (20) and Angola (23).

Nnaji says the reality is different now. “We are optimistic with our team. We want to put together a more vibrant team,” he said. “I want to see these young players playing hard and make a difference,” he said.

Despite his optimism, hosts Mozambique have already made clear they are not interested to repeat the 2003 Final defeat.

“I acknowledge Mozambique has a good team,” Nnaji explained, “but I must say that any team can make it to the top-two. And we want it badly,”

“We have been to Mozambique before. We won there, but we can’t rely on that,” he explained.

Just like their male counterpart, foreign-based players attract a lot of attention.

Nnaji believes they are crucial for the team and they should help the country.

“Most of these players are Nigerians born abroad to Nigerian parents. Others are Nigerians who left the country for academic purposes, as they receive scholarship and seek green pastures elsewhere and we must support them,” he pointed out.

The question now is to find out if those players can make to the team, especially as the tournament will run from 20 to 29 September when some professional leagues are expected to start.

“In the past we had troubles with players joining the team for academic reasons,” Nnaji says. “Now we are looking at this issue differently.”