Hughley named Senegal head coach ahead of 2024 Women's World Cup Pre-Qualifiers

 

DAKAR (Senegal) - The Senegalese Basketball Federation (FSBB) announced on Tuesday that American tactician Otis Hughley Jr. will take charge of the women's national team.

Senegal have been drawn in Group C of the 2026 Women's Basketball World Cup Pre-Qualifying Tournament to be held in Kigali, Rwanda between August 19 and 25, 2024. 

Hughley joins the 11-time Africa champions from Alabama A&M Bulldogs men basketball team in the USA where he has been calling the shots from the sides.

Hughley Jr. led Nigeria to their second straight Women's AfroBasket title in 2019, in Dakar, Senegal

He takes over from Alberto Antuna Leal who was at the helm of the national side during the 2024 FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament played in Antwerp, where Senegal finished 0-3 after losses to Nigeria, hosts Belgium and USA.

According to FSBB, Antuna would have stayed in charge of the team had them qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

FSBB notes that Hughley will be in charge of the Senegalese women's team until the 2025 FIBA Women's AfroBasket, a competition they last won in 2015 in Yaounde, Cameroon.

Hot on his plate is to return the Lioness to the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup, a competition the lionesses last appeared in 2018 in Tenerife, Spain.

Under Hughley, Nigeria in 2018 became the first African team to reach the FIBA Women's Basketball World Quarter-Finals

Hughley Jr. will be the fourth Lioness coach since the departure of Cheikh Sarr in 2019. Before him, there were Moustapha Gaye (2019-2023) and Alberto Antuña Leal (February 2024).

The arrival of the much-travelled American, who won two Women's AfroBasket titles with Nigeria in 2019 and 2021, gives the Senegalese high hopes of turning the tables against their fiercest rivals who have out-classed them in the four editions of Women's AfroBasket. 

There is little doubt that Hughley Jr. has the capabilities and the pedigree of turning around the fortunes in Dakar, but for him to make the beast roar to the top again, there is a lot already in in tray.

Senegal finished second at 2023 Women's AfroBasket

He is expected to take a keen look at the composition of the players at his disposal, the technical staff and then hit the ground running.

With a wealth of college basketball coaching in the USA, Asia and Africa, Hughley Jr, knows the terrain so well and is the perfect pick to call the shots in their next assignments.

FIBA