D’Tigers Head Coach Gives Reasons Why Nigeria Failed In Tunisia

D’Tigers head coach, Mohamed Abdulrahman, has blamed poor preparation and lack of funding for the poor performance of Nigeria’s basketball team in Tunisia.

Last weekend, coach Abdulrahman led the D’Tigers to the window 1 of the 2025 FIBA AfroBasket qualifiers in Monastir, Tunisia.

Initially, the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) withdrew the team from the competition due to lack of funds but made last minute U-turn after government intervention.

They got to Tunisia on Friday and played their first game in the competition on that same day which they lost.

The 2015 African champions ended up losing to Libya, Uganda, and Cape Verde to end the 2025 FIBA AfroBasket qualifiers window 1 without a win.

As it stands, the D’Tigers will have to participate in the 2025 FIBA AfroBasket qualifiers window 2 which is expected to take place in February 2025 to fight for a chance of qualifying for the tournament.

After their abysmal performance in window 1, coach Abdulrahman said: “If we get our acts together and have the necessary support in terms of funding and everything and we will prepare much earlier, we are going to be fine.

“With the same team, if we get the chance to put in some few practice sessions, we are still going to be fine. Most of the mistakes we are making we made here at the tournament and we are paying dearly for it.

“If we had some training sessions we would have taken care of those mistakes and it would have been a different ball game.”