Erinfolami Advises D’Tigers On Weaknesses

In a bid to ensure that Nigeria’s senior basketball team, D’Tigers put up an impressive performance at the 2012 London Olympics, coach of First Deepwater club, Lateef Erinfolami has advised the team to work on the weaknesses they exhibited in their matches at the just concluded Olympic qualifiers in Caracas, Venezuela.

D’Tigers qualified for their maiden Olympic Games in London after they finished third behind Lithuania and Russia in Venezuela.

Speaking ahead of D’Tigers’ first match against another African representative, Tunisia, on Saturday, coach Erinfolami said: “That we qualified for the Olympic Games should not be over celebrated, but right now I expect the coaching crew to begin to work on the identified weaknesses showed by the team during their qualification for London.

“Our match against Russia in the semi final match in Venezuela showed that the team still have some weaknesses in the area of laying-up passes for open players to make a simple jump shot. Also their transition during matches was questionable in most of their games.

“For them to be able to compete favourably against rest of the world in London, the coaching crew, led by coach Ayo Bakare and his assistant Sanni Ahmed, need to work on theses lapses, if not, we might not be able to go beyond the first round at the Olympics.”

The former national team player, however, added that D’Tigers have their strong points in their athleticism, determination and never-give-up spirit.

He said: “What will assist the Nigerian side is that they are athletic and the spirit in the team is high, and I noticed that every player is committed for the success of the team.”

—Bamidele Olowosagba