Nigeria’s men’s senior basketball national team, D’Tigers’ playing pattern has been likened to that of Golden State Warriors of America, according to one of the coaches they came up against at the recent AfroBasket qualifiers in Rwanda, megasportsarena.com reports.
The coach in question is former National Basketball Association (NBA) sensation, Luol Deng, who was at the African Basketball Championship qualifiers in Kigali as handler of South Sudan, who were the first team to fall to the firepower and fury of Nigeria’s D’Tigers.
Incidentally, Deng, who is also the president of Sudan’s basketball federation, had his debut in the dugout during that match and it was against a patchy squad handled by Mike Brown, one of his former coaches during his illustrious days in the NBA.
Brown, who was in charge at Cleveland Cavaliers when Deng was a player, is now in charge of D’Tigers after four years as assistant coach of former NBA champions, Golden State Warriors, and his impact was felt in the opening Group D encounter, which saw Nigeria face South Sudan and two former colleagues clashed as opposing coaches.
Like Deng, who is also a former Olympic Games star with Great Britain, Brown was also having his debut in African competition, as the latest round of phased qualifiers for AfroBasket 2021 held simultaneously in Rwanda and Egypt, and BBC Sport Africa reporter, Janine Anthony noted that all the five days of competition at both venues brought up various talking points.
The report pointed out that there are a total five groups with four nations in each and there are sets of round robin games in each pool, for which the final phase of qualifying began back in February with Group C in Cameroon ahead of the global lockdown, with the hosts taking on Guinea, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea.
Groups A, B and D played their first set of round robin games in the Rwandan capital Kigali while Group E took place in Egypt, while all the pools will play a final set of round robin games in February next year to decide the qualifiers for AfroBasket 2021, which will also hold in Rwanda.
Fifteen of the twenty teams will qualify for AfroBasket to join hosts Rwanda, meaning only the bottom-placed teams in each group will eventually be eliminated but, though the top sides in each of the groups have recorded three wins from three so far, none of the tams has yet been guaranteed a place in the finals.
Teams that have lost all three of their games so far also still have an outside chance of clinching spots at the continental show-piece; ahead of which the current standings in Group A show that Tunisia have won three lost none, DR Congo won two lost one, Central African Republic won one lost two and Madagascar won none lost three.
In Group B, Senegal have won three lost none, Angola won two lost one Kenya won one lost two and Mozambique won none lost three, while Group C has Ivory Coast won three lost none, Cameroon won two lost one Equatorial Guinea won one lost two and Guinea won none lost three.
Group D has Nigeria won three lost none, South Sudan won two lost one, Mali won one lost two and Rwanda won none lost three, while Group E has Egypt won three lost none, Uganda won two lost one, Cape Verde won one lost two and Morocco won none lost three.
This means Nigeria, Tunisia, Senegal and Egypt made perfect starts in their respective qualifying groups, as they all got three wins out of three games, with D’Tigers gaining plaudits from Deng and other observers, as Brown’s side excelled without their array of NBA stars.
Though missing their class of NBA and EuroLeague stars, D’Tigers still enacted a 100% record in Group D with wins over South Sudan, Rwanda and Mali, as the squad captained by Ike Diogu put up a spectacular show, while their skipper weighed in with an average of 16 points per game.
In Group A, the defending champions, Tunisia began their campaign with a convincing 37-point win over Madagascar before also beating both DR Congo and CAR sending out a clear message that they are determined to retain their title in 2021.
Senegal began their Group B campaign with an even more convincing win, as they beat Kenya 92-54, but their victories over Mozambique and Angola were tighter, yet their new coach, Boniface Ndong will be satisfied that they virtually guaranteed a place at AfroBasket 2021.
Egypt, who hosted Group E, were represented by young squad of players with an average age of 25 years, whose hunger saw them beat Uganda, Cape Verde and Morocco, with The Pharaohs showcasing Aly Ahmed and Ehab Amine, MVPs of the U-18 African Championships in 2010 and 2012 respectively, as well as Anas Mahmoud that have previously played US college basketball.
Three coaches made their debuts in the tournament and all three will be satisfied with their first taste of Afrobasket; as Senegal’s Ndong and Nigeria’s Brown went home with three wins out of three while Deng led South Sudan to two wins after less than a week of preparation.
South Sudan were late invitees to the qualifiers after Algeria withdrew, citing poor preparations as a result of COVID-19 and the rushed entry saw the country’s basketball federation president, Deng step in as coach of the national team.
He, however, went on to clash head-on with ‘his master’ in the very first game for his hurriedly assembled side at the competition in Kigali, where Brown ultimately proved too strong for ‘his apprentice’ and Nigeria, the 2015 AfroBasket winners, won the game 76-56.
Deng, who became the first federation president to also be a national team coach, was in awe afterwards, as he hailed D’Tigers and declared: “Their style is very similar to Golden State, where they spread the floor and get shots up but it was a good experience to face him.
“I took this chance and jumped in as a coach because we had a late notice. I knew I wasn’t going to turn it down (because) we had five days to prepare.
“There was no time to go look for a coach. I know what it means for our country to be represented. I’m fine with being coach for now but in future, I don’t think I’ll be the coach.”
