Basketball in Africa

Head Coach of the Nigeria senior men national team, Ayo Bakare says the era of minnows in Africa basketball is over and that the country would approach all the FIBA Africa Zone-3 qualifying games billed for Cote d’Ivoire with all seriousness.

Speaking ahead of the commencement of training Wednesday, the most achieved coach with the Nigeria national team believed that with proper selection and support from the Nigeria federation the team is capable of picking one of the two ticket from the zone to 2009 25th FIBA Africa Championship for Men slated for Libya.

The Nigeria team opens training Wednesday from 11.00 hours local time at the sports hall of the Lagos National Stadium with all invited players expected to be present.

Nigeria will fight for one of the two tickets of the zone alongside host Cote d’Ivoire, Benin Republic, Togo, Burkina Faso, Niger Republic, Ghana and Liberia.

Coach Bakare submission was based on the ground that Nigeria was knocked out of the 24th edition of the Cup of Nations in the quarter-final by less fancied Cape Verde in Angola last year.