Nigeria’s national men’s basketball team, the D’Tigers, has been placed in Pot 7 by the Federation of International Basketball (FIBA) ahead of the FIBA World Cup draw on March 16.
According to a statement released by the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) on Friday and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Senegal, New Zealand and Angola complete teams placed in Pot 7.
The statement, signed by Afolabi Oni, NBBF media officer, also said the 32 teams which qualified for the 2019 FIBA World Cup were shared among eight pots of four teams each.
It further said the placements were based on the latest FIBA World Ranking for men after the last window of qualifiers played in February.
“Hosts China are in Pot 1, alongside the top 3 teams in the world: USA, Spain and France. Pot 2 has Serbia, Argentina, Lithuania and Greece, while Russia, Australia, Brazil and Italy complete Pot 3.
“Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Turkey and Venezuela are in Pot 4.
“Germany, Czech, Poland and Iran are in Pot 5, while FIBA grouped Canada, Montenegro, Philippines and Korea in Pot 6.”
“Japan, Jordan, Tunisia and the last African team to qualify, Cote d’Ivoire, make up teams in Pot 8,” the statement read.
According to the guidelines released by FIBA 24 hours before the event, Pots 1, 4, 5 and 8 would feed Groups A, C, E and G while Pots 2, 3, 6 and 7 would feed Groups B, D, F and H.
China would be placed in Group A with all their group matches to be played in Beijing and reigning world champions USA would be allocated to Group E in Shanghai.
Group B games would be played in Wuhan, while the city of Guangzhou would host Group C.
Foshan will play host to Group D teams.
Group F teams would play in Nanjing, Group G in Shenzhen while Dongguan is the preferred city for Group H teams.
The FIBA World Cup holds between the Aug. 31 and Sept. 15.
The statement said the NBBF would be represented at the draws by Lawal Dayo, a high-ranking official at the Nigerian Embassy in China, while D’Tigers’ Team Manager, Musa Adamu, is also expected to attend the occasion. (NAN)
