Kwara Falcons coach, Adewunmi Aderemi, has debunked reports about being appointed among the assistant coaches of the male national team, D’ Tigers.
A statement was released on August 9 by the Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF, about the appointment of a new coach, Alex Nwora and two assistant coaches to work with him, Gombe Bulls coach Abdulrahman Mohammed and Falcons coach Adewunmi Aderemi.
The former First bank basketball team coach told ACLSports.com he has not been officially told of any appointment by the NBBF.
“I heard it over the news, Facebook , other media platforms etc that I am supposed to be one of the assistant coaches but till now I have not gotten any official letter. No letter has been sent to me or to my state federation, not even a phone call,” he revealed.
With 18 days to the tipoff of the 2017 Afrobasket tournament in Tunisia/Mali, players are yet to be called up to camp. Aderemi believes the NBBF are knowledgeable enough to run the game in the country.
“The organisers know what to do and how to run this game and I believe they know what to do,” he said.
“I think they are not ready for camping now which I know when they are ready they will send a letter of release to the Kwara state government I work for and a personal letter to me then we can proceed to the camp site.”
Other countries have been preparing, engaging their teams in friendlies while Nigeria is yet to get things up and running. There have been fears it might dampen our chances of defending the title we won in Tunisia in 2015.
The former D’Tigress assistant coach thinks we should be able to defend the title against all odds.
“We should be able to defend the title with the guys that won it the last time. Even if those players are not called up, we are blessed with enough talents.”
“It might affect us but I still believe we will do well.” Said Aderemi.
The 2017 Afrobasket will dunkoff on September 8.
