The Nigeria Basketball Federation has urged Nigerians not to press the panic button as the senior men’s national basketball team, D’Tigers prepare for their quarter final clash against Cameroon at the ongoing 2017 Afrobasket Championship.
Col. Samuel Ahmedu (rtd), the international representative on the NBBF board, has responded to unhappy comments made by Nigerians after the loss to DR Congo on Sunday.
Reactions trailed the team’s last group against Congo Democratic Republic who returned to the tournament after a 10-year absence.
Despite the loss to DR Congo, Ahmedu thinks the team gave a good account of themselves giving the prevailing circumstances they found themselves.
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“I understand why some people feel bad and we all do as no one likes to lose. If you understand sports, you will know that you win some and lose some.”
“This team was in camp for 2 weeks only and did not have time for quality friendly games. The team is playing against quality opposition for the first time here.”
He drew positives from D’Tigers ability to come out top of their group despite their loss to DR Congo.
Ahmedu also reacted on the massive changes to the 2015 Afrobasket winning team which has seen the coach, Alex Nwora rebuild a new team for the 2017 edition co-hosted by Tunisia and Senegal.
“Apart from Ike Diogu, players who played in 2015 were not available. Some are in the process of renegotiating contracts, some were not released by their teams due to timing issues, some blatantly refused to show up when invited and some asked to be paid money before they can play for Nigeria. So the coach had to make do with what he has,” Ahmedu revealed.
Nigeria will play against Cameroon on Thursday at 3:30pm in Tunisia.
