Nigeria’s men’s and women’s basketball teams, D’Tigers and D’Tigress, have been drawn into groups for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The Olympic Games basketball tournament will be held from 25 July to 7 August.
The draw was held on Tuesday in Mies, Switzerland.
African women’s champions D’Tigress were drawn in Group B against powerhouse United States of America, France and Japan, while D’Tigers’ only known opponents at the moment are the Australians.
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The two other teams in D’Tigers’ group will be determined by qualifying tournaments in Serbia and Croatia.
Women’s Group A has Korea, Serbia, Canada and Spain; Group C has Australia, Puerto Rico, China and Belgium.
All three of the Nigerian women’s opponents are ranked higher than D’Tigress in the toughest group of the event.
The USA are the No.1 team in the world France are No.5 and hosts Japan are 10th in the world.
Nigeria’s D’Tigress are ranked No.1 in Africa and No.14 in the world with 366 points.
In the men’s event, D’Tigers are ranked 22nd in the world and are 19 places lower than the Australians.
Nigeria’s men and women are Africa’s only representatives in basketball at the Tokyo Games.
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COMMENTS
Nigeria’s basketball is on the rise compared to Football can somebody notice that minister Dare is vindicated to a large extent? I leave the answer to Pinnick and his NFF board members.
Nigeria’s basketball is on the rise because the NBBF have long thrown away the home-based sentiments rubbish that Dare and hungry agents are trying to force on our football now.
The teams have been led in recent times by foreign coaches (with the exception of Alex Nworah who is Nigerian by birth but groomed/based in America) and made up of 100% foreign-borns now, with more and more foreign born lads indicating interests to play for us. Nowadays we no longer struggle to qualify for the Afrobasket championship, the Olympics or World cup. We are always title favorites in Africa nowadays and one of the 1st to qualify for global competitions. Angola used to be our nemesis in basketball on the African continent but we have dusted them and left them far behind us. We have reached quarterfinal stages of Worldcup and Olympic games in recent years. The last time D’Tigress met with the USA Womens basketball team….we led them for 3 quarters and narrowly lost in the 4th quarter with a few seconds/minutes left. I have no doubt our ladies can defeat Japan and stand toe to toe with France in that group
Minister Dare is being shamed rather than being vindicated. The NFF should rather learn from the NBBF than listen to Sunday Dare who is even more clueless than I thought when he was appointed. There has been no top flight basketball league at home for almost 2 years now but Mr Dare has nothing to say about it. Its how he will force 4 homebased players into the SE that is his major headache – all under the masquradic guise of encouraging local content – local content my foot. We dont know what makes foreign based/foreign born Nigerians less Nigerian thn those residing in Nigeria.
I’ve always gat my full support for this guys! Amazing Team both Men and women. Exciting talents to watch in every tournament with stars emerging every now and then. Also, one thing that makes this teams exciting is the fact that most of them are Born and bred in USA and Basketball is right there in their veins. They play with passion and total commitment. I can’t wait to Shout Go GO IK Ireogbu, Yes Baba Diogu!! Come Olympics.
I am sorry to spoil your mood….I hate being the bearer of bad news, but wait till Mr Dare decides to enforce his “local content” policy (at least 4 home-based players) on our BB teams. Lolz