THE Nigeria national women's basketball team, D'Tigress
will engage Turkey and Argentina in friendly games as part of preparations for
the 2016 FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament (WOQT) scheduled to hold in
Nantes, France from 13-19 June, 2016.
The Nigerians who claimed a Third-Place finish at
AfroBasket Women 2015 and as a result secured a place at the WOQT will play Turkey
in Istanbul in May (27-28), three weeks after opening their training camp in
the capital Abuja.
A week before the WOQT, Nigeria will resume their warm-up
games taking on Argentina (8-9 June) in France.
Nigeria head coach Scott Nnaji told FIBA.com that the
country's basketball federation is doing its best to meet the needs of the team
and put it in a position to succeed.
The Nigerians last played in the Olympics in 2004, and in
order to reach the Rio Olympics they will need to claim one of the five places
at stake in Nantes.
They have been drawn in Group C along with Belarus and
Korea. If they can win at least one game in the group, and win two more in the
Final Phase, they will secure a place in Rio Olympics.
That is why Nnaji is calling the preparation games
against Turkey and Argentina - who are also playing in the 12-team WOQT -
"highly important" to measure the team's potential.
"We expect the players to come to camp ready to face
the challenge ahead," he noted.
Nnaji is expected to reveal Nigeria's preliminary squad
in early May and admits he is leaning towards making changes from the team that
went 6-2 in Yaounde, Cameroon last October.
"We have a list [of players] that have shown
interest to be part of the team, and we hope they will make it to the
camp," he explained.
It's been 10 years since Nigeria last faced a European
team in an official competition. At the 2006 FIBA Women's World Championship in
Sao Paulo, Brazil, they lost 84-50 to Russia.
Nigeria will open their WOQT campaign on 13 June against
Belarus.
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