The vice-president of Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), Babatunde Ogunade has denied reports that the country’s male national team, D’Tigers are not receiving adequate preparation ahead of this year’s FIBA Africa Men’s Championship (AfroBasket).
Sports247 reports that, in contrast with widespread news making the rounds in the Nigerian media, Ogunade insisted that D’Tigers are on course to represent the country well at the impending competition in Luanda, Angola.
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With the high-profile championship set to dunk-off on Tuesday and D’Tigers scheduled to play their first group game against Madagascar on Wednesday, many basketball lovers are apprehensive that the squad is heading for a disaster.
However, in a swift reaction to those worries, Ogunade declared, “Preparation for the men has started and we will do what we need to do. They are in camp, and we hope that the success of the women’s team will serve as motivation for them.”
The NBBF’s top shot then quickly chipped in that basketball fans should not compare D’Tigers with D’Tigress, as he pointed out that the two squads are different in nature, and they play in contrasting grades of competitions.
Ogunade added, “We have to note that they are two different teams, with separate configurations. Their structures are also different. So, we should rather not compare both teams.”
He then turned attention on what he called realistic expectations for D’Tigers, who have won the competition only once, which was 10 years ago in Tunisia, who are the defending champions and one of Nigeria’s group opponents in this year’s edition.
“We will take our opponents as we find them, just as the other teams will also take us as they find us,” Ogunade concluded coyly.
Independent checks by Sports247 revealed that 16 out of 17 invited players were in camp as at Friday morning, with the key members already around being only three survivors from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics squad – Josh Okogie, Caleb Agada and Ike Nwamu.
The team is billed to play a friendly with Guinea this weekend, as they prepare for Tuesday’s clash with Madagascar in their first match at AfroBasket 2025, after which they will play three-time winners and defending champions, Tunisia as well as next door eastern neighbours, Cameroon.
Coach of the side, Muhammed Abdulrahman will hope for a better outing than what they got in 2021, when a shock loss to Uganda prevented the Nigerians from going further in the competition.
