Basketball Icon, Chief Alabi Adelanwa is still hopeful of the chances of Nigeria's D'Tigers' chances of securing one of the world cup's tickets, despite the poor start of the team in the ongoing FIBA-Africa Qualifiers
Nigeria's senior men basketball side are currently in the third position with Four points in the group -C of the FIBA-Africa Qualifiers, behind Guinea with Six points and Tunisia with Five points and ahead of Rwanda who has three points, after losing the first two games played in the just ended first round of the world cup qualifiers held in Tunisia between November 27 and 30, 2025
D'Tigers had fell to host, Tunisia 78-88 and Guinea 55-69 before overcoming Rwanda 75-69
But the veteran former national coach, Alabi Adelanwa in an exclusive chat with Edu-biznews at his country home in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, expressed optimism of the chances of D'Tigers picking one of the tickets to represent Africa, saying the team will bounce back in the round of the qualifying series holding between July 2 and 5, 2026
I'm very sure Nigeria Basketball Federation will be better prepared for the next round of the qualifiers in July 2026", he assured.
The Baba Oba of Owu-Kingdom blamed the team's set-back in the qualifiers on the internal wrangling within the federation, calling for a stop to such unhealthy situation, so as to attract sponsorship from corporate organizations for the growth of basketball in the country
Adelanwa , a highly respected former FIBA badged referee who produced the likes of basketball legends in NBA, Akeem Olajuwon and former D'Tigers' captain, Olumide Oyedeji amongst other notable stars, says Nigeria has what it takes in terms of quality players the sound technical crew led by Coach Abdulrahman Mohammed
"We will continue to work harder and pray for a good outing in the next round of qualifying games in the group, the team will strongly come back when the players resume for the next round of games in July, 2026 , it is once beaten twice shy . We have the players that can make it happen for us to be in the next FIBA-World cup", he maintained
Nigeria's D'Tigers have dropped from its previous position of eight to 11th in the latest rankings released by FIBA-Africa, following the unimpressive outing in the last world cup qualifiers
No comments:
Post a Comment