By Daily Sports on July 25, 2018

Despite having a record six wins out of six games in the first round of the World Cup 2019 African Qualifiers, Nigeria’s Head coach Alex Nwora insists that he is banking on hard work and better team chemistry to improve the chances of his team qualifying for the FIBA 2019 World Cup in China.

Nwora stated this after the team narrowly lost to world number 1, United States of America at the weekend in the finals of the PEAK International Invitational Tournament held in China.

“I am very happy with where we are as a team, I think we can do better. We still have a long way to go to be able to have that type of team to compete with anybody in the world.”

Looking ahead of the 2nd round of qualifications between the 14th and 16th of September holding in Lagos, he said more work is required to achieve more.

“We have a very good chance, but nothing is cast on stone yet. The more you work, the more confident you become. If we keep doing what we are doing and keep pushing forward, the odds favour us. We will do what we are supposed to do without cutting corners”

Despite amassing maximum points from 6 games and sitting comfortably atop group F, Nwora highlighted availability of players as one of the biggest challenges ahead of the games against Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Rwanda and Central Africa.

“We still have to get stronger as a team, unit rotation and also availability of players which is the biggest problem which I hope we will find a way to fix”, Nwora said.

With players sealing new contracts and some taking part in the NBA summer league amidst other unforeseen circumstances, Nwora says some new faces are expected to be called up into the team.

He’s hopeful that the best available players can be assembled and given enough preparation time to build up team chemistry.

Nigeria and Tunisia remains the only two teams are still unbeaten in Africa after the first round.

Nigeria scored the most points per game (100.8) and made the joint-most assists per game while Ike Diogu has scored 20+ points in three different games of the African Qualifiers, the most among all players in the competition. (FIBA.basketball)

•Photo shows Nigeria's basketball team

Source Daily Sports

Posted July 25, 2018

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