The African continent and the world at large are in awe over the accomplishment of Nigeria's women's basketball team coach Rena Wakama who assembled a team within one week to win the 2023 FIBA AfroBasket Women's Championship.
The Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF) on the 30th of June 2023 announced a significant development for the national women's basketball team, The D'Tigress. Rena Wakama, a highly experienced coach based in the United States, had been appointed as the new head coach of the team. This appointment came just ahead of the 27th FIBA Africa Women's Championship, which was scheduled to take place in Rwanda from July 28 to August 6.
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Rena Wakama, who is originally from Rivers State in Nigeria, brought a wealth of experience to her new role. She had a strong background in basketball, having played for the senior Nigerian national team in the past. Additionally, Wakama was a four-year letterman at the University of Western Carolina and had played professional basketball in the United Kingdom.
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She served as an assistant coach at Stony Brooks University in the United States, where she has been actively involved in nurturing and developing young basketball talents. Her dedication to the sport is evident in her academic pursuits as well. Wakama earned a bachelor's degree in therapeutic recreation from Western Carolina in 2014 and an MBA from Manhattan in 2019.
The NBBF has expressed its confidence in Rena Wakama's abilities, entrusting her with the responsibility of leading the national women's team for the next two years initially. This appointment came at a crucial time for Nigerian women's basketball, as D'Tigress held the prestigious title of being the current African champions in the continent's women's basketball circuit.
Before the competition, the Nigerian Basketball Federation overhauled the D’Tigress squad. Rena Wakama took charge as the new head coach, and the final roster was selected following open tryouts held in Chicago, Lagos, and Abuja. This decision saw some top players, including Adaora Elonu, the captain during the 2021 Afrobasket triumph, and others like Promise Amukamara, Ezinne Kalu, Victoria Macaulay, and Ify Ibekwe, miss the cut, leading to their retirement from the team in protest.
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The main team of the D'Tigress tam had withdrawn from the tournament solely because of issues with unpaid bonuses and unfair treatment from the Nigerian Baketball Federation as confirmed by the former coach. Earlier, they had missed out on the FIBA Women's World Cup last year in Australia due to the power tussle between two presidents at the submit of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, as they could not sort out the outright leader. Nigeria had initially placed a two year ban on all international basketball activties concerning the national teams.
The decision to lift a ban on the teams playing in international competitions came after an appeal to the government by the Nigerian Basketball Federation and “intervention” by former Nigerian international players and former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari approved the return to play after it had withdrew its teams from international competitions for a two-year period last month citing a leadership struggle and other administrative problems within the national basketball federation.
That move led to the women’s team losing its place at the World Cup in Australia in September. It’s unclear if Nigeria’s women will be able to get their place at the World Cup back after international governing body FIBA replaced them with Mali.
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However, today the defending Champions of the FIBA Women's Afrobasket Nigeria have now emerged as Champions of the 2023 FIBA Basketball Women's AfroBasket once again in Rwanda after beating record champions Senegal at full time 84-74
Nigeria now joins Senegal as the second team in the history of the competition to win the trophy four consecutive times while parading the first ever female coach, Rena Wakama to win the tournament as well.
The D'Tigress make history, they entered the tournament expected to perform poorly given the fact that the main players of the team had pulled out of the tournament earlier along with former coach Otis Hugley who said the manner with which the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) treated the established and key players of the team led to the withdrawal of the players from participating and defending the trophy they won two years ago. They are now on a remarkable 23 match winning streak with Amy Okonkwo elected as MVP of the tournament as well.
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