By Esther Egbe
The assistant coach of D’Tigers, Abdulrahman Mohammed is unfazed about the threat of hosts of this weekend’s 2019 FIBA World cup qualifier series, Mali,National Daily gathered.
–
Despite admitting the threat posed to the team by the host, the coach is confident that the team can repeat their 2017 FIBA Afrobasket feat having defeated the same opposition by 90 points to 67 when they met at the group stage.
Speaking on the strength of opposition to be expected from Rwanda, Uganda and Mali, he said, “Mali is the biggest threat for us. I know we are better than Uganda while I know that Rwanda are going to come up with a few tricks but we are well prepared and we just see out it goes.”
He explained that home advantage will play a major role when they face Mali on Sunday.
“I think Mali will be our biggest opposition because they are also a big basketball nation and they are playing at home and that is going to go a long way in giving them a little edge over us.”
The Coach who led Gombe Bulls to their first ever continental outing last season however ruled out any form of pressure on the team irrespective of the results recorded when they start their campaign on Friday against Uganda.
“It’s a long qualification series. It’s not as if when we lose, we are knocked out of the stage but I don’t see us losing to Mali regardless of the fact that they are playing at home. If we get our players in and we play our game, we are going to beat Mali on their home court.”
Head coach of the side, Alex Nwora will hope to start the world cup qualification campaign on a winning note when they face Uganda on Friday before meeting Rwanda on Saturday.
For Uganda, despite starting on a strong note against Angola which they eventually lost to in overtime, they were not able to win any of their group games as they limped to a 13th place finish.