Former USF BB Head Coach Robert McCullum w/ Nigerian Nat'l Team

[Brad]

From the "weird" category....

Nigeria's D'Tigers departs for Angola without coach

The Nigerian senior national basketball men's team, D' Tigers, departed for Luanda, Angola, on Monday for the 24th edition of FIBA Africa Basketball Championship with six players and no coaching staff.

It was observed that the national team coaches, Sani Ahmed and Andrew Isokpehi, were missing from the list of those travelling to team up with the other members of the team already in Luanda. Among the players who travelled Monday morning were Olumide Oyedeji, Ejike Ugboaja, Churchill Ordia, Abdulrahman Mohammed, Stanley Gumut and Ibrahim Adamu.

The team left to Accra, Ghana, where it will join Angola's official airline to the championship venue, without any member of the board. Players that left from America for the championship included Tunji Awojobi, Ibrahim Badmus, Allosious Anagonye, Deji Akindele, Jason Obazuaye and Chamberline Oguchi. The team also has the services of Julius Nwosu, who is to act as its trainer and assistant coach.

The Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) was said to have engaged the services of South Florida University's head coach, Robert McCullum, to handle D'Tigers for the tourney that has a Beijing 2008 Olympic ticket at stake.

He was hired to coach the USF Bulls on April 18, 2003 by athletic director, Lee Roy Selmon, after serving as head coach at Western Michigan University, where he compiled a 44-45 record. He was fired from USF on March 9, 2007, after showing minimal progress with the Bulls, which ended the 2006-07 season at 12-18. He compiled a 40-76 record as head coach at South Florida.

D'Tigers team co-ordinator in America, Isah Umar, said he did not know the rationale behind the dropping of the local coaches but noted that it might not be unconnected with the fact that the NBBF was cash strapped. Nevertheless, he said it was a shame that the Nigerian team was going to the African Nations Cup in Angola in batches without camping and playing together.

Speaking on the absence of some players such as Imeh Udoka and Gab Mouneke, he said the uncertainty that surrounded the team's participation contributed in no small way in the decision of some of the players to boycott the event. However, he explained that Udoka was recovering from injury while Mouneke's wife was expecting a baby and wants to be around to support her.

Source: Xinhua

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[Jihme]

Nice to see he is able to keep coaching.  Good luck to him!

[crambone]

wow...that's a bit of a commute to and from work every day....

[Herman_Momart]

Maybe he has to re-prove himself overseas before considering a assistant or head coaching job over here.  Best of luck to him, but I think he can do better than that