Ahead of the 2024 Nigeria Premier Basketball League, which tips off on Sunday, Rivers Hoopers head coach, Ogoh Odaudu says his team is battle-ready to defend their title.
Odaudu, who has been in charge of the team since 2009, won consecutive league titles in 2011 and 2012 after their 2010 final defeat to Kano Pillars.
The longest-serving technical manager at Hooper’s has gone ahead to win three more titles in 2019, 2021, and 2023, which was hosted in Port Harcourt.
Rivers Hoopers will face off against Hoops and Read, Kwara Falcons, Police Batons, Lagos Legends, Delta Force, Ebun Comets, and Oluyole Warriors in the Atlantic Conference.
The top four teams from the Atlantic and Savannah Conferences will advance to the final eight, billed for 13-19 November in a yet-to-be-decided venue.
“We are as ready as we can be. We have been putting in a lot of hard work from Port Harcourt, even before we competed in the CDS tournament. That tournament was made for us to test-run our players and see if we still have what it takes.
”We proved ourselves that it was a good stepping stone for us, and we have built on that success heading here. We are hoping we are going to replicate the success in Abuja here and pick one of the final four slots from here.
”Our goal is to win the league and go back to the Basketball Africa League next year.
”Winning this conference is not an achievement. Well, you will have the bragging rights as conference champions, but the major thing is the final eight and winning the final eight. This is still the preparatory stage for us. We are going to take every game as it comes; we are not underrating anyone. We are going to play hard, practice hard, and prepare for the final 8.
“Our goal is to win the league and go back to the BAL so we can continue from where we stopped, Odaudu reiterated. We don’t want to wait another one or two seasons before we go back there and start from scratch. We want to continue from where we stopped.”
The KingsMen will play their opening game of the Atlantic Conference against Delta Force on Sunday, 27 October.
