Many had thought that the two camps opened for the Nigeria team ahead of the 2017 Afrobasket for Women in Mali would bring about differences between the two coaches appointed for the championship.
While reappointed coach of Nigeria Women’s National team, Sam Vincent tutors 15 foreign based players in Orlando, Coach of the current champions of the Zenith Women’s basketball league , First Bank, Peter Ahmedu is in charge of the Lagos camp made up of 14 home based players.
Vincent a former NBA champion with Boston Celtics, led the D’Tigress to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens recording a victory over South Korea, the first ever win by an African nation in a women’s basketball game at the Olympics.
Appointed as assistant coach of the Senior Women national team, Ahmedu disclosed that the home based basketball team is on the same page with their US based counterparts despite operating from separate locations.
Speaking with journalists in Lagos ahead of the Florida team’s arrival, Ahmedu said distance is no barrier between the two camps.
“We are in constant touch with Sam Vincent who is the head coach and Mfon Udoka who is the team manager. What they are doing in Orlando and what we are doing in Nigeria is not different. We have the same training programme and we both look into our training drills,”he said.
The two camps are expected to merge this weekend when the team from Orlando camp move to Lagos on Saturday August 5.
Ahmedu who is in the national team’s technical crew for the first time said it will be a different ball game for the team when both camps are merged on Saturday.
“I am impressed with what I am seeing. We are putting everything at our disposal together to see where we could make adjustments before the foreign players eventually join us,” he concluded.
