BY SEGUN OLANREWAJU
As the country’s senior national basketball team, D’Tigers prepare for Match Day 1 of Paris 2024 Pre- Olympic qualifying tournament, the players have declared that they are not under any pressure.
D’Tigers under the leadership of Coach Ogor Odaudu will start their challenging, difficult and long trip to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France with a tough and tricky Group A tie against Senegal on Monday, August 14, before taking on Mali on Tuesday.
In a chat with cross section of the media, D’Tiger players namely; Michael Eric of Turk Telekom, Sacramento Kings, Chimezie Metu and Saskatchewan Rattlers of Canada sounded optimistic that they would successful in the tournament which will take place from Monday August 14- 20 in Lagos
“We’re mentality, physically and psychotically prepared for the qualifiers and will not disappoint our home fans when hostilities begins on Monday”, they said.
“It’s true that we have some of the basketball power houses in this tournament but we’re not going to give any chances in all the games.
The players said the victory of D’Tigress at the Afro Women Basketball Championship in Kigali, Rwanda will spur them to do better in the qualifying games.
“We’re really excited with what our girls did in Kigali and that will spur us to represent our fatherland well.
“Right now, the boys understand what’s at stake and the coaches have being doing a great job in our training and hopefully, nothing will stop us from victory”, they enthused.