D’Tigers assistant coach Abdulrahman Mohammed has expressed his optimism over the chances of the senior men’s national team at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in April.
Nigeria has been drawn with host Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, a group considered “a group of death’ by many basketball lovers.
Speaking on Thursday, the former Nigeria international said having faced these teams in previous editions of the Commonwealth games, they are pretty aware of what to expect and the threat each country will pose to the D’Tigers.
“Even a layman knows that we are in the group of death. We have played those teams in the past at that same level of competition.”
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The head coach of Gombe Bulls basketball club explained that since the competition is not on the FIBA calendar, most players in the NBA and leagues across Europe will not be released for the competition.
“Most times especially at this period, they don’t always have their best players available for that kind of tournament and we are counting on this same factor this time around.
He believes that this factor will once again give Nigeria who will be parading a team dominated by players from the local scene, the needed edge when they meet all these depleted oppositions.
“We feel that what we have right now are good enough to go and face the category of players they are going parade at this level of the competition because of the timing in terms of NBA and Europe based players who are busy with their clubs.”
He expressed confidence that players will be in top shape judging by the situation in camp after 3 weeks of camping for the games currently going on at the Indoor Sports Hall of the National Stadium, Lagos.
“The boys have been picking up well and improving. So far, it’s been great. The camping condition has been great as the camp is going on well.”
The XXI Commonwealth Games will be held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia between April 4-15.
