jade: an ornamental stone ,jaded: made dull, apathetic, or cynical by experience , jada: a very talented mother of a very talented family , jaga: a double word used by eedris abdukarim 9gerian rapper to describe 9geria . my remix "9geria jaga jaga, we don jaded so tay, all the jadas wey remain, na jade necklace dem want ! gunshots inna d air ....i wish Fela were alive .
Charles Okwandu has won an NCAA winners medal after his team, the University of Connecticut Huskies defeated the Butler Bulldogs in the final of this year's NCAA National Men's Division One Championship.
The match which came up on Monday night (early hours of Tuesday morning in Nigeria) at the Reliant Stadium, in Houston, Texas, saw the Huskies running out with a 53-41 victory. It is their NCCA title in 12 years.
It was a game of contrasting fortunes, that saw the presence of the 7-feet-tall Okwandu, who featured for 13 minutes and finished the game with two points, along with five rebounds, four of which were offensive rebounds, after the Bulldogs over photo:Connecticut Huskies center Charles Okwandu (35) knocks the ball out of the hands of Kentucky Wildcats guard Brandon Knight (R) during their semi-final NCAA Final Four college basketball game in Houston, Texas April 2, 2011. Photo: REUTERS and over again failed in their bid to box him out of the paint.
The former Dodan Warriors of Lagos player, also finished with a block and with his success with the Huskies, becomes the first player from the Nigerian Premier Basketball League to win an NCAA Championship ring.
Okwandu, was discovered by Dodan Warriors president, Sam Ahmedu, a retired Army colonel, and the late basketball coach, Emmanuel Chagu in Satellite Town, a suburb of Lagos, from where he was drafted as a tall skinny high school prospect.
He participated in the Radar Hoops/Nestle Milo Top 50 Camp and the NBA-organized Basketball Without Borders Camp in South Africa and then played for the Lagos-based Warriors in the Premier Basketball League in 2005.
Thereafter, he featured for the Warriors in the finals of the 2006 African Champions Cup for Men hosted in Lagos where the Warriors finished in third place.
And Ahmedu can't but heap accolades on the 25-year-old and his team for winning the 2011 title.
"We give glory to God that the shy, skinny kid of yesterday has grown up to be a man influencing an event of such magnitude on the world stage," said Ahmedu.
"The entire Dodan Warriors programme, and I believe all well-meaning basketball lovers in Nigeria and beyond, are proud of this remarkable achievement which has never been attained by any player from the Nigerian league.
He added: "This is an indication that the Nigerian league will produce world beaters any day, if properly harnessed and managed."
Okwandu wasn't however the only Nigerian player in the Huskies line-up, as they also paraded Alex Oriakhi who, although born in the United States, has Nigerian parents.
The 20-year-old Oriakhi featured for 25 minutes and finished the game with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
"We've been down that road before throughout the whole tournament," Oriakhi said in a statement posted on his school's website. "We just keep playing basketball and we stick together, and I think that's what's most important."
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