Nigeria Men’s National Basketball Team Captain Ike Diogu has expressed his excitement over the draw for this year’s Olympic Games Basketball competition.
The Tokyo Games come off in July this year with 12 nations competing in the Men’s Division and 12 nations competing in the Women’s Division.
Nigeria has qualified in both divisions and takes on USA, France and host nation Japan in Group B of the Female Division. D’Tigress is Africa’s sole representative in the division.
After leading Nigeria to the 2012 and 2016 Games, Diogu is expected to make the team and make his third and likely final run with the national team after contemplating retirement in May, 2020.
Speaking to FIBA after the draw, he said, “It’s just like the World Cup…I don’t think there are any easy draws, every team we are going play it’s going be really good. These are the 12 best teams in the world. We’re looking forward to the challenge.”
Nigeria was drawn in Group B alongside Australia and winners of qualification tournaments in Croatia and Serbia respectively. Nigeria qualified automatically to the Olympics after winning three of five games at the 2019 Basketball World Cup.
Senegal, Angola and Tunisia will compete in the qualification tournaments alongside 21 other countries for spots in Tokyo.
By Yaw Adjei-Mintah
@YawMintYM on Twitter
