Despite the series of controversies surrounding the preparations of the D’Tigress ahead of the 2023 edition of the FIBA women’s afro basket tournament set to be hosted in Rwanda, the ladies go into the tournament hoping to secure a fourth consecutive trophy in what has been a total domination of women basketball in the continent.
The hopes of however achieving this feat appear quite unrealistic at the moment due to the composition of the roster and the situation surrounding the resignation of the previous head coach and the appointment of a new head coach just a few weeks into the start of the tournament.
Serious preparations didn’t start until about a month ago when the NBBF called for an open camp and also commissioning tryouts in three centres: one each in the FCT, Lagos and the United States.
Also, with the resignation of the former head coach, Otis Hughley Jnr, former player Rena Wakama was appointed as head coach, within the same period in view.
In the midst of all of these, Rivers Hoopers Media Manager, Queen John-Moseph in an interview with Brilla FM, has predicted that even though the odds are stacked against the current defending champions, the D’Tigress could reach the finals of the tournament. She believes the Nigerian factor could spur the team on despite the Myriad challenges.
According to Queen, “If I want to be realistic, deep down I have this belief that they will get to the final. There is the Nigerian factor that spurs us to victory, even in 2017, we still had a new coach then, still, we grew into the tournament and even won that tournament.”
The D’Tigress will be opening their Afrobasket tournament campaign with a game against their top group D rivals, DR Congo on Friday, 28th of July at 10:30 am Nigerian time at the Kigali City Arena.
They’ll subsequently play against Egypt in their final group stage encounter on Sunday 30th of July at the same venue by 2:00 PM Nigerian time.