Basketball in Africa

Nigeria Basketball Federation president, Tijjani Umar has revealed that he is happy with the development of D'Tigers, who are currently in the United States of America on a 3-game preparation tourney with Venezuela ahead the commencement of Afrobasket next month in Cote d'Ivoire.
Describing the outings as impressive considering that the team only had only practice session as a team for only about a couple hours in total before their first game which they lost, he told LEADERSHIP SPORTS that the team has done well in his opinion. "In the first match, we led comfortably and were in control all of the game till 3 minutes to go to the end. Then we lost focus and our guys thought the game was over. The Venezuelan team went on a run, gained confidence, momentum shifted, and we could not get our heads right anymore. For the guys, it was a good lesson to learn on how to close out games," he said.
The Nigeria Basketball Federation had endorsed a three-game series between D'Tigers and the Venezuelan national team in preparation for the Afrobasket championship coming up next month in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. Venezuela is also preparing for the Fiba Americas championship.
On Friday D'Tigers played Venezuela in Sarasota, Florida, played them again yesterday in Orlando, Florida and will confront them again in their last game on tomorrow in Miami, Florida.
The national team is expected to play additional preparatory games during its final training camp in USA. New entrants like Ben Uzoh and 2013 NEC Player of the Year, Jamal Olasewere are part of the party.