Nigeria have placed 17th at the just concluded FIBA 3×3 World Cup in Manila, Philippines. D’Tigers won just a game against Jordan losing three other games to Ukraine, Croatia and Latvia to finish fourth in Pool D.
Although the quartet of Abdul Yahaya, Azuoma Dike, Lucky Subel and David Godwin had high expectations before the tournament started, leader of the delegation Frank Jituboh was quick to tell ACLSports https://www.aclsports.com/12552-2/ before their departure that there was no set target for the team.
Jituboh who is also the Chairman of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Basketball Association expressed satisfaction with their first ever participation at such level.
“I am very satisfied with the performance of the boys being their first time at this level. The experience garnered here playing against the best teams around the world will be very important going forward.”
Stressing further, Jituboh said the win against Jordan who are number 16 in the latest FIBA 3×3 ranking is a great boost to the team.
“We are eagerly waiting for the revised ranking at the end of this month to see the effect of our World Cup outing.”
After losses to Ukraine, Croatia and Latvia at the tournament, he said vital lessons have been learnt.
“I will be reporting back to the federation when we arrive on Thursday with special emphasis placed on the need to have a 3×3 league in Nigeria which will help us have bigger pool of players for future selections.”
Out of the 20 teams that participated at the World Cup, Nigeria who are ranked 66 finished in the 17th spot above Brazil, Jordan and Indonesia who are ranked 13th, 16th and 33rd respectively. All three finished with 0-4 record, winless in four games.
Meanwhile, Serbia successfully defended their title beating Netherlands in a repeat of last year’s final in France. It was their third straight title and fourth overall.
The Nigerian contingent is expected to arrive in Lagos on Thursday aboard Qatar Airways flight at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport.
