By Amosu Adeboye, LAGOS
Nigeria’s D’Tigers will know their group opponents of the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup in China when the draw for the competition holds in Shenzhen, China on Saturday, March 16, 2019.
The tournament will hold from Saturday, 31 August to Sunday, 15 September 2019 in eight Chinese cities.
Alex Nwora’s side was the first to qualify for the World Cup on the back of a nine-match winning streak.
The team will be making their third appearance after a 12-year absence since 2006.
“Nothing good comes easy and I am waiting to see the teams that will be drawn against us. The 32 teams which have qualified for the World Cup have the potential to win the championship, so no country can be underrated, “Nwora told the NBBF media department.
“This is a historic moment for me as the head coach and as a Nigerian. Before the qualifiers started, nobody knew that we would have qualified with four games left to play and also as the best team in Africa.”
“Nobody could have thought that we were going to be the first team in the world to qualify, but here we are.”
Meanwhile, host nation China, USA, Spain, France, Serbia, Argentina, Lithuania, and Greece have all been announced by the Federation of International Basketball Associations as top seeds and the D’Tigers of Nigeria will be hopeful for a favourable draw.
