D’Tigers assistant coach, Mohammed Abdulrahman has admitted that the team’s slow start cost them when Nigeria battled host nation, Angola, at the 2023 AfroCan group match on Monday.
D’Tigers won their first game of the tournament at the ongoing FIBA AfroCan tournament against Mali.
Coach of Nigeria’s home based national basketball team Ogoh Odaudu has rued Nigeria’s 84-80 defeat to Algeria at the ongoing FIBA Afrocan tournament in Mali which ended Nigeria’s nightmarish outing in a tournament which the team lost all three games played.
Odaudu speaking in a chat with www.brila.net said the D’Tigers outing was an unfortunate one which boils down to lack of competitive games for the players before the championship.
He said the team will have to go back to the drawing board and above all good to have a tournament like this which offers a great platform for home based players to showcase themselves.
“It’s a very painful loss, a close and painful. I think we played our best game of the tournament against Algeria but it’s just unfortunate we didn’t meet up. Our campaign ended already and we just have to go back to the drawing board.
As for the Afrocan 2019 we are done and it’s over for us but it’s a good experience for domestic players who get to play competitively at the national team level for their respective counties.”
Former assistant coach of Nigeria’s D’Tigers Mohammed Abdulrahman has called on the attention of the Nigeria Basketball Federation to note and see the cause of Nigeria’s failure at the ongoing FIBA Afrocan championship in Bamako Mali.
This is became necessary following the team’s 84 – 80 loss to Algeria yesterday in the round of 16 to cap a poor run which has seen them lose three games on the bounce.
Abdulrahman speaking in a chat with www.brila.net said the team’s failure is not unconnected to the lack of league action one area the NBBF in communication with FIBA has failed with no proper league action now in about 19 months.
He stressed that the gradual improvement shown by the team from game to game despite the losses are clear indications of how rusty the players have become.
“Definitely you don’t have to search any further, the lack of league action is just the cause of the team’s struggles. It’s one thing for them to have regular fitness like stamina and then it’s another thing to have match fitness.
That’s entirely a different thing you don’t just get by practising with your teams which they do day in day out. Despite the fact that we are much bigger nation, losing to smaller teams showed that the other teams are probably well engaged in league action in their nation.”
Nigeria put up an uninspiring performance and lost a second successive group game at the AfroCan on Sunday by a massive 26 points in a 81-55 defeat to DR Congo.
Gombe Bulls and Rivers Hoopers with 4 players each dominate the 14-man list released by the home based D’Tigers Head Coach, Ogoh Odaudu for the AFROCAN tipping off on July, 19th in Bamako.
The Super Eagles of Nigeria have been drawn alongside DR Congo and Kenya in Group B of the 2019 FIBA AFROCAN men’s basketball holding in Mali.