The pre-tournament championship for the D’Tigers is starting today at the Convention Centre of the Eko Hotels in Lagos, and they are optimistic about their chances of qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Nigeria’s opening match in the qualifying tournament is at 5:00 p.m. against Senegal.
The players, lead by Coach Mike Brown, commented on the competition, saying it gives them another chance to prove they are one of the top teams in the world.
Speaking about the team’s chances, Michael Eric claimed that D’Tigers are ready to defeat Senegal, a familiar adversary, and said that the presence of all of Africa’s basketball powerhouses does not pose a threat to their aspirations. On August 20, the pre-tournament championship will come to a close.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda have withdrew from the competition, the world basketball governing body, FIBA, has informed competitors.
The Congolese and Ugandan basketball associations informed FIBA of their decision to withdraw from the competition, and FIBA stated it will look into the situation and evaluate it to decide any potential disciplinary actions.
“As a result, in the Group A of the FIBA Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament 2023, Nigeria will be played with two teams, Senegal, and Mali The Group B will be played with three teams, Cameroon, Guinea and Tunisia.
“The teams from each group will play against each other in a single round-robin format. The top two teams of each group after the group phase will qualify for the final phase.