Rivers Hoopers head coach, Ogoh Odaudu is still revelling in his leadership of the Atlantic Conference team at the 2017 Kwese Premier Basketball League All Star Weekend in Kano.
Odaudu coached the Atlantic Conference Selected side in their 106-115 loss to the Savannah Conference last weekend.
In a chat with Rivers Hoopers Media, the former Nigeria international says he had fun in Kano.
“It was great being on the All Star team 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,” said Odaudu who was making his fourth appearance at the All Star Weekend as a coach.
Oduadu believed there was a disparity in the quality of players in the Savannah and the Atlantic Conference.
“The result showed they (Savannah) had better players than ours (Atlantic Conference).
“The person who won the dunk, dunked better, the person who won the three point shot, made more baskets than people from our side, so everything worked in their favour. And 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,” acknowledged Odaudu as he gave a hint of an home court advantage.
Hoopers’ Solomon Ajegbeyi took his impressive form into the All Star Weekend with another double- double performance, scoring 28 points and 15 rebounds while Emmanuel Balogun contributed 17 points and 2 assists.
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.
“Emmanuel Balogun and Solomon Ajegbeyi stood out. If we had won the All Star game, one of the two would have won the MVP. I think they both led in scoring for this conference so they played very well.”
Previously there used to be a reward given to the winners of the All-Star game as well as the various categories. Asked if the availability of a prize would have served as motivation for his boys, Odaudu opposed.
“Even without a prize given, it was fun, the crowd had fun, it was interesting, it was intense, it was just a 9 point 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,” said Odaudu.
On whether the result of the All Star Weekend would be a reflection of the 2017 KPBL finals, Odaudu disagreed.
“I don’t think it will be like that. It won’t be dominated by the north. There are a couple of teams that will give them (Savannah) a lot of fight.”
