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Joe Apu
Captain of D’ Tigers, Ike Diogu believes Nigeria’s chances look good for a medal place later in September, when Nigeria lines up alongside 31 other nations for the FIBA Basketball World Cup in China.
Diogu told fiba.basketball that Nigeria would perform better than she did 13 years back in Japan 2006.
The captain, a seven-year NBA veteran was instrumental for the FIBA AfroBasket 2015 Champions, as Nigeria punched her ticket for the global bonanza on a 10-2 slate and the country’s third FIBA Basketball World Cup appearance.
“I am fired up ahead of the tournament in China. It’s a very important competition, we worked hard to qualify for the World Cup and the entire team is happy things ended up positively,”Diogu told FIBA.basketball
“We wanted to end the qualifiers unbeaten, but unfortunately we lost 2 games during the final window. We made some mistakes and I think it’s a good thing because we will be able to work on them and improve going forward.”
The last time Nigeria featured in a FIBA basketball World Cup was in Japan in 2006, Ike Diogu nicknamed “The Black Caesar” was a young gun on the books of NBA Franchise, Golden State Warriors.
During the Japan showdown, “D’Tigers” crashed out of the tournament in the round 16 after a 78-77 loss against Germany in an epic matchup.
