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OT: The Nigerian National Basketball Team Coach... From Vermont


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This is a pretty fascinating article about the Olympics and coaches: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-coach-of-nigerias-basketball-team-is-from-vermont-1469481350

 

The Nigerian national team coach is actually from Vermont... who played soccer in California in college... and then his basketball coaching career began.

 

For those who don't have access to the article, it mainly goes along these lines:

- Will Voigt played Division III soccer in college, but had interest in being a basketball coach

- He took an internship with the LA Clippers; then the 1999 NBA lockout happened

- He became a video coordinator for the Spurs

- He then took a head coaching job in Norway for three years

- Then coached a semi-pro team in Vermont

- Then took a coaching job in China

- Then coached the Bakersfield D-league team from 2009-2014

- Then he became the Nigerian men's national basketball team head coach and general manager, who has filled his staff with coaches from Norway, Nigeria, and the NBA

 

They played a friendly against Argentina (ranked #4) last week and ended up winning. No African national team has made it to the knockout round. This could be a fun story to keep an eye on and watch unfold as the Olympics begins! It just goes to show that if you want something, go chase after it! There is no "right" path to get what you want.

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Ade Dagundoro played on their 2012 Olympic team, but is not on the list of invitees for 2016 (I did not find the final roster).

 

http://teamnigeriabasketball.com/nigeria-basketball-announces-27-player-roster-for-olympic-camp/

 

That invitee list has some good guys who can play defense.  

 

From what I can find he was injured during the 2012 games and never really recovered enough from that.

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