Dodan Warriors Basketball team owner, Samuel Ahmedu, has predicted a tough outing for Basketball in Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil.
He described the group B draw, which has Nigeria, Brazil, Lithuania, Spain, Argentina and Croatia, as the most interesting group in the competition.
The D’Tigers were recently humiliated by the powerful USA team by 66- 110 points in a friendly duel.
“There are 12 nations playing Olympic men’s basketball, and Nigeria could be one of the eight teams that would get out of the group. In the last two Olympics, no team ranked lower than No. 20 survived the group stage, and Nigeria enters the Olympics ranked 25th in the world. But it is not impossible. Recently, Nigeria beat No. 4 Argentina,” he said.
Team Nigeria is relying on the technical strength of her American coach, Will Voigt, the man who constructed a roster with current NBA players like Al- Farouq Aminu and Michael Gbinije and notable college players who are now scattered around the world. Then he had to figure out how they should play.
Nigeria still plans to run and press, but Voigt wants the team to be more efficient in the halfcourt too.
“In the past, people would look at African teams and say they’re athletic, but they have no discipline and play wild,” said Ahmedu. “But the coach and his crew have really worked hard to change that. That was our approach at AfroBasket, and that’s our approach for Rio.”
Meanwhile, France, Serbia and Croatia completed the 12-team field by winning qualifying tournaments in the Philippines, Serbia and Italy.
France (sixth place in 2012 London Olympics) and Serbia (first Olympics appearance since 2004) will play in Group A, while Croatia (first Olympic appearance since 2008) will be a part of Group B.
The U.S., which won gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Olympics, is in Group A with Australia, China, Venezuela, France and Serbia.
