HBCU men’s hoops coach hired to lead African WBB National Team

Courtesy of AAMU Athletics

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. | Alabama A&M University head men’s basketball coach Otis Hughley Jr. added another major milestone on Wednesday as the HBCU basketball coach was selected as the Senegal Women’s National Team head coach.

“This is an outstanding honor and I am absolutely excited to be selected to take over as the women’s national team head coach,” Hughley said. “This position will not interfere with the duties I have at Alabama A&M University. In fact, this will be helpful as we expand our brand globally.”

Hughley became the 10th head coach at Alabama A&M in 2022 and has guided the Bulldogs to the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Men’s Basketball Tournament in back-to-back seasons while compiling a 27-41 overall record and a 19-17 conference mark.

During the 2023-24 campaign, Hughley coached Chad Moodie, who received the SWAC Freshman of the Year honor, and guided his HBCU to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Men’s Basketball Tournament. While at the CIT, Alabama A&M defeated Austin Peay in the quarterfinals, giving the Bulldogs its first postseason tournament win in 19 years. AAMU advanced to the semifinals, falling to eventual tourney champs, fellow HBCU Norfolk State.

Hughley, who has worked with the Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors as an assistant coach, is no stranger to the international stage on both the men’s and women’s side, having served more than a decade with the NBA’s China Program.

As part of that initiative, he was the associate head coach for the Shandong Bulls Goldstone in 2002-03 and helped lead that franchise to a 31-11 record and a first-round playoff appearance that season.

He returned to the international game 12 years later as a consultant to the Xinjiang Flying Tigers and as the head coach of the Chinese Taipei Men’s and Women’s National Teams in 2015-16. That same season he would serve as an assistant coach for the Tianjin Gold Lions in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA).

In 2017 his international experience would continue to grow to include the women’s game as he was named the head coach of the Nigerian Women’s National Team. In that role, he helped lead the program to three Afro-Basket Championships (2017, 2019, 2021), a No. 1 world ranking in Africa, No. 14 in the world, and a berth in the 2022 World Cup. The latter made them one of the top 12 teams in the world.

Part of what helped them earn those August rankings was an impressive performance in the 2018 World Cup in Spain when they became the first African team to win a game outside of the continent when they won three in a row to reach the quarterfinals.

They defeated No. 7 Turkey, No. 16 Argentina, and No. 20 Greece in that tournament and earned a berth in the 2020 Toyko Olympics where they finished 11th. They are currently one of 12 teams to have qualified for the 2022 World Cup in Sydney, Australia.

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