11 March 2013

NIGERIA : Afrobasket 2013 - Expect Better d'Tigers Than Olympics Squad - Umar

The Nigeria Basketball Federation is planning to storm Cote d'Ivoire in July, venue of this year's African Basketball Championship for men with a team stronger than even what shocked the world before the Olympics. Nigeria has never won the competition before and has played second fiddle to Angola severally but against all odds made it to the Olympics in London in 2012.
Still rated second best team on the continent after Angola, the federation president, Tijjani Umar told LEADERSHIP WEEKEND SPORTS exclusively that with the team the federation is putting in place, the Olympics side will be a child's play.
The journey to consolidating on the gains of the historic Olympics attendance began in August 2011 where Nigeria placed third in the Afrobasket in Madagascar. With that she booked a place to participate in pre-Olympic qualifying tournament decided a year later. Drawn against Venezuela, Lithuania, Greece, Russia and Dominican Republic, no one gave the team a chance.
D'Tigers showed signs of promise when they won the gold in the All Africa Games in Maputo, Mozambique and thereafter headed for a preparation tourney in China. There, they grabbed an extra time win against England 86-80 and proceeded to win bronze in a 4 Nations Invitational Tournament in Houston.
By the time they qualified in July 2012 for the Olympics for the first time in history, they became the cynosure of Team Nigeria at the event. Coached by Ayo Bakare, the historic team included, Anthony Skinn, EkeneIbekwe, Ike Diogu, Al-FarouqAminu, Ade Dagunduro, Chamberlain Oguchi, Koko Achibong and Richard Oruche. Others are EjikeUgboaja, Derrick Obasohan, AladeAminu and OlumideOyedeji.
For Tijjani Umar, the camp is wide open and no player has automatic shirt yet for the African championship in Cote d'Ivoire. He said the team's qualification for the Olympics has upped the stakes and anything can happen as more and even better players are listed and angling to play for the national team.
According to him, even class acts like Ike Diogu who stood out during the qualifiers and Olympics will have to fight for shirts because competition will be stiffer. "Expect to see surprises in our team to the Nations Cup. There is now room for a lot of surprises and expect to see players like Sunday Mba the footballer in our Nations Cup in basketball.
The African championship opportunity for players especially from the Nigerian league is wide open now and local coaches and players have opportunity to make it big. I expect them to take the bull by the horn. From what we are planning as a federation, the Olympics team that everybody praised will be smaller because we now have better players up there who felt inspired by our Olympics qualification and outing and want to play for Nigeria.
We will give them a chance. Those who made us proud at the Olympics are also rearing to go and finish the task in Cote d'Ivoire by winning the cup but they will have to fight for shirts. "
Umar said the federation has deliberately decided keep mum about the Nations Cup because they want action to commence in the DStv Premier League so as to draft the best players to the national team. "Nigerians will soon know our plans concerning the Nations Cup, but we are silent on that for now because of the league where we are planning to pick players we believe are good enough to make the national team.
Once the league commences, we have detailed coaches to pencil down exceptional local players to join the national team instantly. There won't be any protocol about that; they will join the national team so that preparations begin in earnest.
So, you can see that competition will be very stiff which means even the Olympics stars will have to fight for shirts. I strongly advice the local players and coaches to make very good use of the opportunity coming because it is now their time."

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