In preparation for the 2017 Afrobasket and Afrobasket Women tournaments, the Nigerian teams are expected to play at least two international friendly games. These games are scheduled to take place in July.
The President of the Nigerian Basketball Federation Tijjani Umar confirmed this during his presentation at the Annual General Meeting held on Monday at the NAF Conference Centre and Suites. The countries include Lithuania, Australia, France, Serbia and China
`As I`m speaking to you, the Federation has already sealed two friendlies each for the male and female teams. The games will be played in July. Everything is being paid for by the host - ticket, accomodation, local tranport. All we have to do is present a team. This is a huge move forward`
He attributed the invitation to the success of the basketball teams in the 2015 Afrobasket, the Rio Olympics and the Women`s Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
`Our team played in Rio and they did - people would say not very well - but in my mind, they did well. Because after the tournament, we moved up 9 spots on the FIBA Ranking.`
Nigeria was the only African team at the basketball tournament at Rio Olympics finishing overall 11th, one spot above China. The female team, however, failed to pick up one of the available tickets at the Women`s Olympic Qualifying Tournament in France. Regardless, the President expressed satisfaction over their performance.
`What we did with the WOQT was to take DTigress from the African level and put them at the level of the world. So that this year 2017, for Afrobasket Women, there won`t be any competition. I`m telling you, our ladies will win Afrobasket for this year`
DTigers will defend their title at the AfroBasket 2017 which will be held in Brazzaville, Congo-Brazzaville from 17 - 31 August. However, the venue for the women`s event is yet to be announced.
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