National Sports Commission (NSC) director-general, Honourable Bukola Olopade, has charged the country’s men’s basketball national team, D’Tigers, to step up and translate their undisputed quality into sterling results at the upcoming FIBA World Cup qualifiers.
Sports247 reports that, while taking a look ahead of the team’s first game this Thursday and another on Friday in Rades, Tunisia, Olopade reasoned that D’Tigers have a remarkable roll call of players and a crack technical crew capable of making Nigeria proud.
As the 12-man squad prepares to take on Cameroon, South Sudan and Cape Verde in the fourth window of the qualifiers, Olopade pointed out that D’Tigers are now in a very crucial stage of the elimination series and they must strengthen their chances of reaching the global showpiece in Qatar.
D’Tigers, whose coaching crew is led by USA’s David Fizdale, assisted by Dan Craig, Quinton Crawford, Deji Akindele and Dapo Adegibile, will open their campaign against Cameroon on Thursday, then face South Sudan the next day, after which they end their fixtures against Cape Verde on August 30th.
Olopade urged the team to seize the opportunity and move closer to the FIBA World Cup in Qatar, while affirming that the NSC and all Nigerians are fully behind the players, as he expressed profound confidence in their ability to effectively represent the country.
The NSC’s ‘DG’ described the window as an important part of the nation’s basketball history, then charged the players to line out with the legendary Nigerian fighting spirit and remain focused on the ultimate goal of gaining qualification to the FIBA World Cup.
“This is a very important window for D’Tigers and for Nigerian basketball. We have a talented group of players and an experienced technical team. Now is the time to translate that quality into results,” Olopade stated, then added that the team must play with unity and discipline.
Sports247 gathered that D’Tigers’ squad to Rades, Tunisia features Chimezie Metu, Josh Okogie, Caleb Agada, Stan Okoye, Chima Moneke, Ike Nwamu, Udoka Azubuike, Efe Abogidi, Ebuka Izundu, Manny Obaseki, Jordan Ogundiran and Paul Dibal.
 director-general, Honourable Bukola Olopade, has charged the country's men's basketball national team, D'Tigers){kind=link}