Basketball coaches, Sani Ahmed and Scott Nnaji, have said the victory of Nigeria’s women’s basketball team at the FIBA Africa Championship for Women on Sunday in Mali has confirmed the country’s dominance of the sport in Africa.
Nigeria won their third Afrobasket women title on Sunday after beating former champions Senegal 65-48.
The victory meant Nigeria is in custody of the continent’s men and women’s titles as D’Tigers won the men’s African tourney in 2015. They will defend their title in September in Tunisia and Senegal.
The former national team coaches told our correspondent that D’Tigress showed what Nigeria could do on the world scene with adequate preparations.
Kano Pillars coach Ahmed said, “The victory was expected with the way the ladies played form their first match against Mozambique. Their toughest challenge came in the semifinal when they played Mali – that match was not only against the team but against the supporters of the home team.
“Their victory has told the continent that Nigeria is ready to dominate basketball for a long time to come. The talents are there, we just need to prepare adequately for the competitions when the time comes. Some African teams don’t have the talents we have but they get to beat us because they have long and adequate preparations.”
Nnaji, who is the coach of Customs, said, “The title took a long time before coming to Nigeria. The team went close in 2015 but lost by a point to the hosts in the semifinal but this time against a tougher host, they prevailed. It shows that Nigeria is still the best in basketball in Africa if the right things are done.
“In the FIBA rankings we are ahead of many other African countries. What we need is adequate preparation and a good organisation of our talents at home.
“Ahead of the World Cup, the right things should be done and more players gotten to make the team competitive. Also the win by D’Tigress should motivate the men to do well in their title defence.”
