Nigeria’s D’Tigers have crashed out of this year’s FIBA men’s AfroBasket after losing to Senegal in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
In the last eight encounter, D’Tigers suffered a 91 – 75 defeat to exit the tournament.
The Nigerian team went into the contest on the back of a perfect group stage performance, beating defending champions Tunisia, Madagascar and Cameroon.
On their part, the Senegal recorded two wins and lost one in the group stage which was not enough to qualify directly for the last eight.
But they eventually picked a quarter-final ticket thanks to their win against South Sudan in the qualifiers.
Also Read: AfroBasket 2025: Dikko Commends D’Tigers For Flying Start
In Wednesday’s contest, D’Tigers took the first quarter by 24-23 before Senegal emerged tops in the second and third quarters, 39-18 and 23-13 respectively.
D’Tigers won the fourth quarter 20-15 but it was not enough as the Senegalese had already done enough to scale through to the semis.
Meanwhile, D’Tigers’ elimination the team’s wait for a first FIBA AfroBasket title since 2015 continues.
They failed to emulate their female counterparts D’Tigress, who clinched a record fifth consecutive women’s AfroBasket title in Cote d’Ivoire few weeks ago.
By James Agberebi
4 Comments
Like football like basketball.
Homebased coaches will steamroll small fries (who do not have the same quality of playing personel as we do) but capitulate disastrously when they meet an equal.
I stopped watching in the 3rd quarter when the lead was nearly by 25 points.
Our male basketball team has been a shadow of itself since Mike Brown left. That man in a matter of months raised a team that could defeat the likes of Argentina and USA.
The NBBF seemed to be heading in the right direction at the time until the cancer called Sunday Dare spread into that federation.
You said it all
Indeed @Dr Drey! It was an obvious coaching failure! I also stopped watching but after the second quarter and elected to follow the updates through google, but midway through the third quarter I saw no need to sacrifice my sleep.
Right from the first game, even an amateur basketball observer could clearly see that the team did not bother to go for rebounds (both offensive and defensive), something our women team were doing with grace! Yet our coach couldn’t identify and fix that!
The team could not check the Senegalese players around the 3-points arc giving them ample time to gauge and deliver their 3 pointers successfully, yet a coach couldn’t identify not spot that either. Not even the simple feinting routines to free a targeted player to plant a basket!
When I saw an agitated Josh Okogie taking over to deliver their pep talks during one of the time outs in the second quarter, it was obvious that even the players knew that they don’t have a coach.
I mean if we could get Rene Wakama for the ladies, what stopped us getting Ime Udoka or other tested and qualified coach for the men team?
My brother, we once had Mike Brown and Alex Nworah, how did we treat them….? I can bet Rena is not having fun working with the NBBF, but she’s just hanging out becuase there’s an opportunity for her and her players to make names for themselves.
Are these the best Nigerian basketballers we can muster…..absolute NO. But when the NBBF wouldn’t treat them well, both players and coaches, why will we not be left with leftovers to represent us. I remember the Aminu brothers quitting years back because the NBBF refused to as much as support their medical bills when they got injured on national duty.
Another sad reflection and affirmation of the fact that sports isn’t developing locally across all fronts be it player, coaching and administration.