You wouldn’t have known the Nigerian men’s basketball team was down 26 points to the United States at the London Olympics when Nigeria’s No. 11 nailed a shot that drew a loud cheer during a party Thursday at the University of Illinois Springfield.
That’s because former UIS standout Richard Oruche was wearing the No. 11 uniform for Nigeria. An estimated crowd of 50 people filled a lounge in the Student Life Building on campus to watch Oruche, a 2010 UIS graduate, play for Nigeria in a record-setting 156-73 loss to Team USA.
DiVinci Smith, a senior business management major from Joliet, was in attendance. He was a redshirt basketball player for UIS in 2009.
“He (Oruche) is on television playing against people he probably idolized,” Smith said. “It’s crazy to see him playing against them because I played against this dude. I guarded him. I had competition with him.”
The watch party was featured in a August 3, 2012, article in the State Journal-Register.
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