Ivory Coast’s Abidjan Basket Club (ABC) have appointed Liz Mills as head coach ahead of the upcoming Basketball Africa League (BAL) 2023. The Australian tactician has cemented her name, with nearly a decade working in Africa at club and national level, including spells at Rwandan top-flight club Patriots and as an assistant coach with Zambia and Cameroon. Until early this year, she was serving as head coach of the Kenyan national basketball team, a job that saw her make history as she became the first woman to ever coach at the AfroBasket tournament in Kigali in September 2021. Mills took over the Kenya job ahead of the AfroBasket 2021 qualifiers, where the country was looking to make it to Africa’s premier competition for the first time in 28 years. Abidjan Basket Club (ABC) secured the ticket to the Basketball Africa League (BAL) Season 3 after a 80-63 victory over Stade Malien Bamako. “Excited to announce I'm joining ABC as the Head Coach for the upcoming BAL season,’ Mills noted in a tweet. Twelve clubs qualified for the BAL 2023: Egypt- Al Ahly Senegal- As Douanes Angola- Petro de Luanda Tunisia- US Monastir Rwanda- REG Nigeria- Kwara Falcons Guinea- SLAC Coted'voire- ABC Mali- Stade Malien Mozambique- Ferroviário da Beira South Africa- Cape Town Tigers Uganda- City Oilers
