Nigeria’s D’Tigers blew an 11- point lead from the third quarter to lose 99-92 against Germany in their second group game at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Completesports.com reports.
Both teams lost their first game to Australia and Italy respectively and battled hard from the start to assert authority in the contest.
They were levelled 50-50 at half-time and tied 74-74 at the end of third quarter.
Read Also: Tokyo 2020 Basketball : Gallant D’Tigress Fall To USA
Milwaukee Bucks star Jordan Nworah was Nigeria’s best player on the court as he finished with a game high 33 points.
He also had a shooting accuracy of 58% from his outside shots, converting 7/12 of his attempted shots.
Miye Oni was the other D’Tigers player to finish on double digits with 15pts.
To progress into the next round , Mike Brown ‘s side will need Australia to beat Italy, and they will need to beat the Italians in their last group game.
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COMMENTS
“…..To progress into the next round , Mike Brown ‘s side will need Australia to beat Italy, and they will need to beat the Italians in their last group game…..”
Now we are back to this….A must beat B and C must beat D for Q to qualify.
The disappointment at watching the guys blow an 11 point lead in the 3rd quarter cannot be emphasized. We seemed to be cruising and then started becoming complacent until late in the game when we were now the ones chasing an 11 point lead. This D’Tigers team is a very exciting team, but their focus needs MORE FOCUS. We are good enough to be in the last 8, not in the classification zone. I wish we had saved the energy we used in beating USA and Argentina in friendlies for the tournament proper. Those wins surely got into the heads of these players. Its always better to make hay when the sun is still shinning.
I think, we suffered in managing our energy levels tactically, hence the sudden slump. This is one area our national teams, wether football, basketball or whatever must start taking seriously. We must learn to know when and how to conserve energy for when it matters most, to pick a win. These developed countries seemed to have mastered this tricks. They take their foot of the pedals in the course of the game at some moments, while still maintaining fair margin in scores difference, only come out full blast towards wrapping off the game at a time our boys may have been gasping for breath. Anyway, I personally, am not at all disappointed but rather overjoyed at the massive improvement our basketball has experienced in recent years. We must continue to improve basketball in Nigeria n in no distant time, be reckoned amongst the best in the world. KUDOS to D TIGERS, OUR WORTHY AMBASSADORS.
Maybe we need to start learning and integrating sports science and human kinetics methodologies into the management of our teams. Nowadays, a the top levels, there’s just only but a fine line between success and failure. Basics, Details, The little things that matter….these are things that determine who wins or loses games in the world of sports when talent balances out talent. We didnt deserve to lose today, but somehow, we did.
Before the commencement of the games, despite those wins vs USA and Argentina, getting out of the group would have been a huge achievement, even when people thought we would win a medal, because I knew talent wouldnt be enough when push comes to shove especially at the big stage. Here in Africa, talent is always more than enough, usually the most talented teams always win tournaments, but the same teams now starts looking so ordinary and below average when they get to the global stage even though the players are playing in the same or clubs of similar stature like their opponents. The absence of a lot of little, little things amalgamate to form the big stumbling blocks that deny us success on the big stage. At a point in the game when we were leading with about 8 points, Jordan Nwora made a 3pt basket with a little bit of showboating…he turned his face away while taking the shot and was facing his teammates on the bench while the ball went through the hoops. Yea…that was awesome….the basket was greeted with wild applause with his teammates all bumping chests, shoulders and what not at such a wonderful beauty of a shot. But guess what, the German bench immediately called for timeout after that basket, and while they were re-strategizing, we were still smarting from the beautiful shot that had just given us an 11 point lead. And that was the last time we were happy in that game. Immediately after restart, the Germans leveled up and raced into the lead and went on to win the game.
Now, the award of the “best shot” in the game undoubtedly went to us, but guess what, we lost the game and will now need a huge favor and plenty of handwork to qualify for the next round. Once again, we forgot to respect that thin line between success and failure….that thin line of not fouling an Algerian player in a “Riyahd Mahrez zone” in the 96th minute of an AFCON semifinal…..that thin line of not “loosing Marco Rojo” with 4 minutes to qualification for the round of 16. Those basics, details and the little things that matter….we need to start putting them on the front burner of our preparations for games, maybe, just maybe even much more than the personnel who will execute the match.
Thumbs up broda Dr Drey. You just hit the on its head. We must start to take those little details seriously, for us to be able to carve out wins ultimately.
The LITTLE DETAILS are not so little after all, when you consider the impact they have on the outcome of games. We really need to start looking beyond just talent. Sports science is proven when it comes to maximizing the output of athletes. Our game management needs to be more pragmatic. We need to be focused and mentally solid to beat the big teams.
Nice summation there Dr Drey. Well thought out.
I’m not surprised some hater gave a thumbs down to that piece. We a good number of them in this forum.
Dr. Drey, you have captured my mood … I was so excited when I woke up to watch the match and got so more excited when we were 11 points ahead.
Suddenly we stopped playing and those guys upturned the whole point lead.
They are very good but very complacent. You don’t do that when rubbing shoulders with the big boys.
Nobody come look face for Olympics… I watched the game against Australia and saw the Nigeria team has poor 3point shooters as well as for free throws… They are very good defensively though… but they often go cold from the 3rd quarter onwards and particularly poor in 4th quarter… In another news I just watched Cote d’voire edged out Germany after 1 – 1 draw in Olympics soccer… honestly I would say we should stop making some of these foreign borns bigheaded by chasing them… Germany had Felix Uduokhai and Jordan Torunarigha in Central defence of 3man and they were at best average… The only two foreign borns I rep in Central defence now with potential availability to still join us are the duo of Adarabioyo and Tomori… other than that, we don’t need anybody in defence anymore especially with Calvin Bassey… Collins should be allowed to improve on speed, attacking, crosses and solidity before ever being invited again for LB duty… It Should be Calvin and Sanusi in that role of LB now… One love!
Permutation and combination don enter matter ooo.
Oya, calculator sellers, time to make your money has arrived!
The 4th quarter collapse that happened in the first game has happened AGAIN.
That frustrates me. If you make a mistake once, that’s ok. But when you repeat the SAME MISTAKE in the very next game, the question must be asked – are we not learning from our mistakes?
To blow a big lead like we did is poor. Poor game management. We see enough of this in football, were our teams draw or lose games from winning positions. Now it’s happening in basketball, it seems to be a flaw that cuts across our national sports teams!
Now we have to hope the Aussies do us a favor.
Realistically though, had it not been for the foreign born talents, we for no even smell anywhere near Olympics. So it’s massive progress that we are even there competing. The team should be kept together. Hopefully, they will grow together and become even better.
What makes u to think that Adarabioyo and Tomori will be successful if they choose to represent Nigeria? I hate it when ordinary fans will say to a professional coach on who and who to invite. This Bassey of a thing ehn! Playing for national team is a different thing but if the coach deems it fit to take a look at him so be it
…well @Tayo, the will to succeed is connected to how much personal resolve someone has to want something at all cost… I watched Tosin and Tomori closely last season… Tosin for Fulham and Tomori for AC Milan… I can tell you that both those guys have had football education at some of the best clubs and with quality coaches mostly who have also played in the past… I don’t believe in someone being good at club and not good in international matches except such a person is flatly not good… Balogun is 33yrs now, Umeruo is shaky and slow, Ekong seems solid but always needs a guy who could help his judgements in central defence (Balogun does this and I am sure Awaziem too can) Balogun won’t be there anymore for long and I think we all know Umeruo may not be less than 35yrs in reality… Nigeria’s weekest department is also defence right from the 80s and 90s era… having someone like Tosin or Tomori will be a huge insurance for Nigeria in the long term… Anyone who followed Fulham last season knows Tosin is a clean central defender with rare qualities… I have played in that position, as well as midfield and attack to know what qualities perch high on scale when assessing such positions… Fulham got relegated because they could not score goals and threw away games they should have won mostly at tail end of games… We must think in ways to continue to refine the Eagles…
I don’t know why fans don’t trust Awazzy. I trust his ability. He has always been decent for us in past games. The own goal against Lesotho could happen to anyone. I think he is good enough.
I would rather have Val and Izuchukwu in there understudying the Oyibo wall than Adarabioyo and Tomori, who in my opinion, are average at best. Just my opinion. And Akpoguma is also a good option. Let’s also not be in a hurry to write off Semi Ajayi yet. I think our center back options are ok.
If Adarabioyo and Tomori show interest in playing for us in the near future, they have to show that they are head and shoulders better than what we have available. I’m not in favor of us pursuing and begging these guys. We have enough quality to move forward without them.
As for Calvin Bassey, now there’s someone we should be interested in! Love his game. He would make a very good alternative to Sanusi.
Good point @ Pompeii, though I understand Jimmyball’s angle. Awaziem to me, is as good the rest. Maybe he is just under-rated because he ain’t foreign born lolzz.
In fact ehn, Glory, the guy deserves a lot more respect than he is given by Nigeria fans. He has always been solid whenever called upon, either as a right back, or as a center back.
For me, if we have a tournament tomorrow, my top 5 center backs for invitation are Balogun, Ekong, Akpoguma, Awazzy, and Ajayi. I’m not sure Adara and Tomori can even make the squad ahead of these guys.
Val and Izuchukwu may not be as good as Adara and Tomori, but we don’t have to go begging and chasing them. We should be monitoring their development going forward.
Bro… Ajayi is average. Did you watch West Brom last season? That guy is often prone to poor judegements and decisions… He made lots of mistakes that made West Brom lose games last season and he will be good today but make schoolboy errors the next two games… those were the drawbacks of his game last season… I hope he improves though… look at it… Which premier league club has asked to sign him after their relegation? None… that tells a lot.
…@Pompei, haba Izu that Rohr did not even trust? Playing in a backwater league? Val no longer has a future in Galatasaray and did not even play a single game for Gala last season… those guys come with huge doubts… Tomori whom is a starter for AC Milan and just got 25mille Euros contract with AC? Please I beg some of you guys to watch club games… I stream games all the time involving Nigeria players and last term I watched over 20 Fulham matches… We should watch games to better assess these guys not hear-says and conjectures… Tomori plays like Balogun from the defence into the middle… Tosin has an almost flawless right and left quality passes from defence… bro, AC Milan is not a club to cough out 25mille pounds for an average defender bro… The question is if those guys will want to play for Nigeria… I believe they will want to if we sell
our programmes well to them… I don’t see both
Tomori and Adarabioyo playing for England
anytime soon… and if we approach them again concretely with the world cup as a catch… sure, they won’t say no… but to say they are average… man that is a very spurious assertion… Walahi!
Jimbo, note that I acknowledged that Adara and Tomori are better than Val and Izu.
However, I don’t believe that we should go begging these guys if they are not willing to play for us. I would rather have a committed “back water league” defender who values our jersey to an AC Milan starter who wants to use us as a means of actualizing his 3 Lions ambitions.
Adara too has openly declared that England is where his heart is. Perhaps in the near future, we will see Adara at the heart of the English defense alongside Harry Maguire, loooool. That would be wonderful if that happens. I will manage a back water league defender who wants to play for the SE, and is humble and willing to put in the work.
If Adara and Tomori are willing to join us, then that would be fine. But we should not have to beg them for it. They need us as much as we need them.
I agree with you… We should even stop begging those foreign borns completely… Let them come to us instead.
Our major problem in this tournament is our bench, the bench not good enough, our boys ran out ideas, and got tired by the end of third quarter, we need quality fresh legs to compliment the first team efforts, but we don’t have enough no player from the bench that can change the game, all this would be corrected by next major tournament.no shaking guys they’re tried, this countries go hear from us in next Olympic.
Guys please don’t be disappointed we need coach Brown to continue as our coach, with coach Brown many Nigerian NBA stars will play for Nigeria.
When I laugh at the prospect of Adara joining Maguire in the English defense in the near future, it is not because he isn’t good enough. But because he has a lot of rivers to cross for that to happen! There are a lot of white English center back talents out there that will likely be fairly or unfairly placed ahead of him in the pecking order. He has to be so many times better than Stones for him to be selected ahead of Stones, for example. You know this. He can continue to chase pipe dreams with England, or chose a more probable alternative, the SE. The decision is his to make.
Him, Tomori and the rest of the English born undecided guys are well advised to look at what just happened to Nneka Ogwumike as per the US Olympic women’s basketball squad, and to factor that into their decision making.
While Adara, Tomori and co are busy chasing England, Iwobi has already participated in a world cup and an Afcon. And Iwobi is sure to go to the next world cup, ceteris paribus. Make dem siddon dia for yonder.
Credit to Abdul Handsy for showing this video on an earlier thread.
We already have a world class left back in Sanusi. Calvin Bassey is not that far off in quality, in my opinion. Especially when it comes to offensive threat. Just needs a bit more polish, and we could have ourselves a really good left back/left wing back.
With his MOTM performance in this game, e don begin blow small small.
Let’s move for him now before he blows up and the Italians or the English get interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHxKy7sxV6A&t=191s
He’s already on Rohr’s radar. He will be invited for SuperEagles upcoming qualifiers. I think he might be slightly better than Sanusi. The only edge Zaidu has over him is that he plays for Porto. This is why we have problems with our age grade teams in Nigeria. Bassey was supposed to be in Aigboguns team to the U20 WorldCup in Poland, but because Ikouwem Udoh was the captain and plays the same role Bassey was dropped. Today Ikouwem Udoh has almost fled to oblivion or may have returned to the NPFL I need an update on him please whereas Bassey is showing potentials and continue to improve as a genuine U20 player. Rohr has watched him play for Rangers on numerous occasions and he’s guaranteed to be called up by Nigeria in September. With Bassey and Sanusi our left back/left wing back position is set.
He looks good. Plays very much like victor moses. Same pace, energy and trickery as victor moses. Would be an effective wing back player for us depending on the formation played by the coach.
The way u guys claim that upcoming players are better than more established players in annoying