Basketball in Africa

In a bid to better it 5th placement at the 25th edition of the African Cup of Nations known as Afrobasket for Men, the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) has mapped out a 3-day preparatory exercise for the nations senior national team, DTigers with mixture of home-based players and few others who ply their trade in the Middle East and other part of the continent.

The camp which will be conducted by the two coaches who qualified Nigeria for the continent biggest basketball showpiece, Coaches Sani Ahmed and Adeka Daudu has sixteen players.

The players comprises reigning DStv Premier Basketball League most valuable player, Abubakar Usman (point guard) of Kano Pillars basketball club also includes Ibrahim Yusuf (off-guard/small forward), Mathew Omonya small forward) and Onyeka Okeke (centre) from the Pillars, Kada Stars basketball club of Kaduna has Abubakar Yusuf (small forward) and Abdulwahab Yahaya (power forward) while Abel Baraya (small forward) was called up from relegated side, Plateau Peaks basketball club of Jos.

Royal Hoopers basketball club of Port Harcourt has three players they include, point guard Michael Ohiero, small forward Musa Usman off-guard and Azuoma Dike; Mohammed Bukar (off-guard) made the list from Dodan Warriors basketball club of Lagos; Orseer Ikyaator (point guard) from Comets basketball club of Lagos and Onyeka Ekpete (power forward) of Union Bank basketball club of Lagos.

The three included players who play professional basketball in the Middle East and other parts of Africa are Stanley Gumut (Libya); Edem Ekpeyong (Kuwait) and Boniface Synasius (Bahrain).

The players are to have two practice session daily between June 2 and 4 at the sports hall of the Abuja national stadium.