31
D’Tigress head coach Otis Hugley Jr has envisaged winning gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after successfully triumphing at the 2019 FIBA Women’s AfroBasket.
D’Tigress must, however, first make it through two qualification windows to make the 2020 Olympics and after missing out virtually at the Rio 2016 Olympics, Hugley said the team must be ready to keep their nose to the grindstone, in order to ensure a spot in Tokyo not just for the sake of qualifying but with the goal of winning gold at the Games.
“We have to go through November and February and we are going to work really hard to do that. And the goal is not just to get there it’s to win it.”
The American coach summoned three new faces to his squad for the 2019 FIBA Women’s AfroBasket – Jasmine Nwajei, Victoria Macaulay and Ifunaya Ibekwe – and he says there could be more players of Nigerian descent in foreign leagues more willing to play for the D’Tigress following their latest victory.
In reference to calling up new members, Hugley said, “We’ll see, I’m sure the winning is going to generate a lot of interest but the ticket to the Olympics is going to generate tremendous interest. So we’ll see,”
D’Tigress have been drawn in Group A of the first window for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics qualifiers where they will face Mozambique and Congo DR who they defeated 79-46 at the 2019 FIBA AfroBasket in Dakar, Senegal.
