‘Bittersweet Exit’: Rivers Hoopers Reflect on BAL Season Five Setback

Two weeks after their early exit from the Basketball Africa League (BAL) Season Five Playoffs, Rivers Hoopers head coach Ogoh Odaudu has opened up about the team’s rollercoaster campaign—one that began with promise but ended in disappointment.

The Nigerian champions entered the playoffs in Pretoria with momentum, having posted a solid 4–2 record in the Kalahari Conference. But back-to-back defeats—first to Tunisia’s US Monastir (89–81) in a seeding game, then a heavy 104–73 loss to Rwanda’s APR in the quarter-finals—cut short their ambitions of improving on last year’s historic third-place finish.

‘BAL Season Five was both good and bad,’ Odaudu admitted. ‘In Morocco, we did everything right. But in Pretoria, things fell apart. Some players fell sick, and the chemistry we thought we had just didn’t show up. So it was bittersweet.’

The coach revealed that a viral illness swept through the team just before their quarter-final clash, severely impacting performance. ‘We were just barely managing with what we had,’ he said. ‘We all practiced hard, we were ready, but the virus was a major factor.’

Despite the setback, Odaudu praised the SunBet Arena in Pretoria, which hosted the BAL Playoffs for the first time after four seasons in Kigali.

‘The crowd was energetic, the facilities were top-notch. Whether it’s Pretoria or Kigali, it’s still basketball,’ he noted.

While the KingsMen couldn’t replicate their podium finish from Season Four, Odaudu remains optimistic.

‘We didn’t have a good playoffs this year, but we’re hoping to bounce back and learn from our mistakes.’