In its quest to adequately prepare the D’Tigers for the 2019 FIBA Men’s World Cup, the Nigeria Basketball Federation has lined up multiple grade A friendlies against Dominican Republic and Canada ahead of the World Cup.
D’Tigers two-legged encounter against Dominican Republic will take place in Santo Domingo between July 19th and 25th before playing Canada in Quebec and Ontario between August 5th and 11th 2019.
According to arrangements put in place for the team, D’Tigers will open camp in the United States of America before moving to Canada.
Lagos, Nigeria will be venue of the final phase of preparation with NBBF already in advanced talks with a yet to be named World Cup bound team for a two-legged friendly.
NBBF President, Musa Kida disclosed that the federation is determined to give the team the best preparation that it can afford to ensure that the team does the nation proud in China when the World cup starts on the 31st of August.
“We have locked down two-grade A games with Dominican Republic and Canada who will both be at the World Cup. These games alongside those we are still planning to organize when the team comes to Lagos, we believe, will provide quality tests for the team.”
Kida revealed that though the choices of camp sites in the USA and Canada have not been made due to factors such as quality of facilities, playing personnel and most importantly funds, agreements have been concluded with the Canadian and Dominican Republic Basketball Federations for the games.
Meanwhile, the team is also billed to participate in a friendly tournament featuring some teams that will take part in the World Cup in China between 21st and 26th of August.
The team coached by Alex Nwora is drawn in Group B alongside Argentina, Russia and Korea with all its group games to be played in Wuhan. The 2019 FIBA World Cup will take place between August 30th of and 16th of September 2019