Musa Kida, the President, Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), on Tuesday said that the national senior men’s basketball team, D’Tigers, would be well prepared for the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China.
Nigeria ranked number one in Africa and 33 in the world and in Group B with Russia, Argentina and Korea who are ranked 10, five and 32 respectively.
Kida told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that he was confident of the team’s quality and with a well coordinated preparation, the team would surely shock the world.
“It is a very dicey group, with Russia a very good team from Europe and Argentina the current South American giants and against Korea who are no pushovers at the big stage.
“We are a power house when it comes to the world stage and we are going to put up the kind of performance that will definitely shock the world.
“We are very confident of doing well; I have no predictions but can assure everybody that at the end, it will be our best outing ever,” he said.
“We are going to the World Cup as the number one team in Africa and the first country to qualify or the World Cup globally on the back of a nine -game unbeaten streak.
“We are in talk with D’Tigers’ head coach, Alex Nwora, who also communicates regularly with our players in Europe and in the U.S.
“In the coming days, we shall draw out our World Cup preparation plans which will also go side by side with the African Games.’’
D’tigers will begin their quest to World Cup glory against Russia on Aug. 31 and clash with Argentina on Sept. 2 and also play Korea before the classification games in the second round.
(NAN)
