By Our Reporter
D’TIGERS captain, Ike Diogu
has revealed that the current players in the team are pumped up to give a good
account of themselves at the 2019 FIBA Men’s World Cup in China, Sportsbiz247.blogspot.com reports.
With all 15 players in camp
set to make their World Cup debut if selected as part of the final 12-man
rooster, Diogu said the chance to be at the World Cup means everything to the
members of the squad.
“It means a lot because none
of us has played in the World Cup. The one time we had a chance of qualifying
was in 2013 and we lost in the quarter finals of the Afrobasket. This is the
first time for us all and we want to make sure we do something special.”
He thumbed up the high
quality of training program for the team which he said has really improved the
team’s overall performance as evident in the 4 friendlies played so far.
“We have got a lot of good
young players and we are all excited to represent Nigeria in the right way. We
are preparing very well and we expect to have a successful outing at the World Cup.”
Diogu said that the series
of friendlies and the training camps in New York, Canada and Lagos have given
the team ample time to blend and get familiar with each other
“We just have to make sure we
play as a team. Individually we know how good we are. We have a good collection
of NBA talents and high level Europe based talents. We just have to play
collectively as a group and I guess we should be fine against everybody else.”
Nigeria made its debut at
the 1998 World cup in Athens, Greece while the last appearance was in 2006
where the team got eliminated in the round of 16.
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