NNAMANI GODWIN UGOCHUKWU
Nigeria’s senior male basketball team, D’Tigers will have to contend with stiff opposition from former world champions, Argentina, Russia and Korea when hostilities dunk off at this year’s FIBA Basketball World Cup in China from 31 August to 15 September.
The South Americans went into Saturday’s draw in Shenzhen as a top seed and ended up in Group B with Russia, Korea and Nigeria. The games will be played in Wuhan.
The draw was conducted on Saturday at Shenzhen Bay Arena in China.
Russia were fourth at FIBA EuroBasket 2017, Korea third at the FIBA Asia Cup 2017 and Nigeria were runners-up at FIBA AfroBasket 2017.
Argentina, runners-up at FIBA AmeriCup 2017, had a terrific Americas Qualifiers campaign for the World Cup, winning 9 of 12 games.
D’Tigers will be returning to the World Cup eight years after as they missed out in the 2010 and 2014 editions.
Meanwhile, veteran Argentina coach Sergio Hernandez is not expecting to face “any easy opponents” at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in China after being drawn in arguably one of the toughest groups in the 32-team tournament.
“Now that the draw is over, I give a lot of value to having had a good qualifying round and to have been one of the top seeds because from that onwards, we were able to get a better draw,” Hernandez told the World Cup official website, fiba,basketball.com. “I accept the group we’ve gotten.
“In any case, as we know, at World Cups, every game is crucial. There are no easy opponents and predictions serve for very little. You have to perform on the court. It’s like that, there are no secrets.
“We are going to prepare ourselves to be up to the standard required.”
“Our enthusiasm is very high,” said Federico Susbielles, President of Argentina’s Basketball Confederation (CABB). “We already know our rivals and where we’ll play. We’re only missing a few details to announce our preparation for the Word Cup. I think we can do a good job. I fully trust our team and Sergio Hernandez, a coach with experience, ability and leadership.”
The full draw
Group A: Cote-d-Ivoire, Poland, Venezuela and Poland
Group B: Russia, Nigeria, Argentina and Korea
Group C: Spain, Ireland, Puerto Rico and Tunisia
Group D: Angola, Philippines, Italy and Serbia
Group E: Turkey, Czech Republic, USA and Japan
Group F: Greece, New Zealand, Brazil and Montenegro
Group G: Dominican Republic, France, Germany and Jordan.
Group H: Canada, Senegal, Lithuania and Australia
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