The coach of the national senior women basketball team, Scott Nnaji, yesterday, assured Nigerians of D’Tigress’ readiness to participate in the 2013 Women Afrobasket Championship scheduled for Maputo, Mozambique, from September 20 till September 26.
Speaking after the team’s final training in Abuja ahead of their departure, the coach intimated that his side is improving “by the day”.
“We are getting stronger and getting to understand each other by the day and we will make sure that, by the time we play our first match at the competition, we will understand ourselves more,” coach Nnaji said.
“Though I have not seen the other teams but I am sure that our will to perform is what is carrying us on.”
Nigeria is drawn in group B alongside defending champions Angola, Mali, Cameroon, Kenya and Cape Verde.
He also said the two-time champions will be banking on the strength of the team to spur them to success, stressing that they would not rate any team above themselves.
“We will rather play our best,” added Nnaji. “In addition, we are not rating any team too high, we only believe in the strength that we have. We will do our best, and we believe that our best will see us through.
“When you start thinking of some teams as being exceptionally good, you will begin to undermine what you have in your team.
“As for us, we will look at everybody as an opponent and we won’t rate some bigger than the others.
“If you relax your mind that this is a big team or a small team, you might end up getting surprised by the smaller teams. So, we rate every team as the same.
“Nevertheless, we will respect those with good records. But we will not rate them too high above us. That will make us appear as being inferior,” D’Tigress coach stressed.
