In the future, two things will stand out about the 2024 Paris Olympic women’s basketball tournament.
First, the Americans’ one-point, gritty comeback win over France in the final, resulting in an eighth-consecutive gold medal. Second, is Nigeria’s upset wins over Australia and Canada, making it the first African team (male or female) to advance beyond the group stage.
Rena Wakama was the head coach who guided the Nigerian ship to the new heights. At only 32, FIBA awarded her as the most outstanding head coach of the event. This was a field that included Sandy Brondello and Cheryl Reeve — the two WNBA Finals-caliber coaches who are on the fast track to the Hall of Fame.
In the wake of her success in Paris, Wakama is returning to her day job as an assistant at Tulane University. Though this is her first season with the Green Wave, Wakama is no stranger to the NCAA. She was an assistant coach at Stony Brook in 2023-24 when the team went 28-5, and spent six seasons at Manhattan, first as a director of basketball operations and later as an assistant coach.
“It felt like a dream,” Wakama told The Next about her Olympic experience. “I haven’t actually had time to process it. I got off the plane Aug. 12, and Aug. 13, I was at work. It was a life changing and humbling experience. It was a huge eye opener to myself and my future. I had doubts. But after achieving what I achieved, it felt like I was supposed to be [there]. Trust your journey.”
The journey for Wakama began in Raleigh, N.C., where she was born to parents from Okrika, Rivers State, Nigeria.
“One thing about my mom, she wanted me to know where my home was,” Wakama said. “And home was Nigeria. Although I grew up in the States, behind closed doors in the house, I grew up with all of the traditions and the culture, coming down to the food, the music, even the way we would conduct ourselves in everyday life. My mom made sure I would not lose that. She made sure I would go home to Nigeria every year as a young girl. As I got older, it got harder, with my career. But my mom made sure I was connected to my roots.”
Coming up the ranks
Wakama played at Western Carolina (WCU), of the Southern Conference, from 2010-2014. As a senior, she scored more than 10 points per game for the Catamounts and was an all-academic performer.
“I had offers from a lot of schools in North Carolina and surrounding states,” she said, “and I decided to go four and half hours away from home. I did something out of the norm and [got] uncomfortable and [went] to school in the mountains where I had never been before. I wanted to see what I was made of, and I kind of grew up.”
After WCU, Wakama played for the Nigerian national team and won the bronze medal at AfroBasket in 2015. She also appeared in several other events before beginning her six-year assistant coaching stint at Manhattan College.
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“I learned a lot about myself,” she continued. “Manhattan is where I grew and achieved where I am today. My former head coach [Heather Vulin] is a phenomenal human being and coach. I learned how to love all my players. She wanted you to know that nothing was bigger than life. If anything happened in life, she made sure you were there for the life events. She said basketball was great, we’re going to work our tails off, but don’t forget to be human.”
For college teams in the New York City area, recruiting and retaining local products is one of the largest keys to success. Ashley Langford knew this when she came to Stony Brook (SBU) as head coach and had a vacancy on her staff.
“I was looking for an assistant who would fill a void and mesh with my current staff,” Langford said. “I wanted somebody who had local ties and could recruit in New York. Her name came up, and I interviewed a couple other people, and she was the best fit at the time.”
Langford, who is only 37 herself, brought Wakama with her to Tulane. Langford returned to her alma mater in April, where she was an All-Conference USA guard in the late 2000s. Langford is “super detail oriented” and an “up-and-coming star in this business,” according to Wakama.
Wakama noted that the day after SBU hired her, the Nigerian general manager called. After meetings with the federation president and board members, she added national team coach to her resume. Wakama would lead the team to the 2023 AfroBasket gold medal at Kigali, Rwanda. In February, Nigeria placed third at the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Antwerp, Belgium, punching its ticket to Paris.
“Her success is our success,” Langford continued. “Just to be able to be a first — the first female coach of that country and to represent it so well and to get those honors — as the coach of the Olympics. She broke barriers. For her it’s amazing, but for me, I am proud of her, as well. She represents our university, too. The more she is successful, the more we all are. It’s a lot to brag about.”
A recruiting edge
Tulane’s academics are a global brand. While the current roster has no international players, Langford says she believes the attention Wakama garnered will increase recruiting both home and abroad. Seeing as Nigeria matched with the U.S. in the quarterfinal, that visibility could be a boom domestically.
“Everyone watched the Olympics and knows the WNBA players,” Langford said, “and to be able to coach against WNBA players on that stage is remarkable. I could use a snippet of her story to show kids, it doesn’t matter who you are where you are from, if you have the resources or not, it doesn’t matter. When it comes to competing, you have to show up, give effort and prepare. Then, anything can happen. Everyone may have different callings or paths, but at the end of the day, show up and anything can happen.”
Tulane is looking to improve from a 12-20 season with a 3-15 mark in the American Athletic Conference. The team returns leading scorer Kyren Whittington, who scored 17.4 points per game last year. Victoria Keenan (8.7 ppg) and Sherese Pittman (12.6 ppg) transferred over from Stony Brook with Langford and Wakama.
“I am going to coach as long as I can and impact as many lives as I can,” Wakama concluded. “I want to help Coach Langford win a championship here at Tulane and get this program back to where it used to be. I want to dominate African basketball and continue to share my testimony.”
