D’Tigers Won’t Fail At 2013 Afrobasket

Nigeria’s coach Bakare gives instructions during their 2012 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament basketball game against Dominican Republic in Caracas

Nigeria's coach Bakare gives instructions during their 2012 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament basketball game against Dominican Republic in Caracas

Nigeria's coach Bakare gives instructions during their 2012 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament basketball game against Dominican Republic in Caracas
Nigeria’s coach Bakare gives instructions during their 2012 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament basketball game against Dominican Republic in Caracas

Coach Ayo Bakare is unarguably one of the most experienced Nigerian coaches after over two decades in the Nigerian basketball league. The handler of Comets of Lagos, who led the Nigerian national team, D’Tigers, to their maiden Olympics in 2012 in London, in this interview takes a look at the performances of clubs in the ongoing DStv league and the chances of D’Tigers at the upcoming Afrobasket in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.

After playing 10 league matches in the new season, how woud you assess the performance of your team, Comets?

Well, I would say my players have been developing by every match we have played so far. If we are to take our last two matches against the Islanders into perspective, I would say we are improving and I am happy that we won the two games against a very tough opponent. I hope my boys would continue to get better. I am not really disturbed with our performance because I know my players are very good and they can only get better as the competition progresses.

Which of the teams in the Atlantic Conference would you say is in the pole position to lead the table at the end of the day?

Right now you cannot really say a particular team are in a pole position to lead the conference because most of the teams are getting better. It is not until we have played between 15 to 20 matches that one can easily assess all the teams. It is only then that the best teams would begin to emerge. Right now everyone is trying to run a new system with their teams. How will you assess  the performance of the defending champions, Royal Hoopers of Port Harcourt, in this new season?

I don’t agree with that. The Royal Hoopers are still a very good side with some good players in their fold. They might have lost some matches against the Oluyole Warriors in Ibadan and in Lagos too, but that does not make them a bad team. You need to realise that some of the players that won the league for the team are not with the them any longer and Coach Ogor Odaudu is trying to raise a formidable team once again. It is really difficult to build a new team in this league, but I can assure you that they will be right there among the top teams in the end because they still have enough experienced players in the team. They just need a little time for the coaching crew to get their acts together.

How would you rate the performance of the match officials so far in the league?

Well, so far so good for the referees they have been handling most of the matches I have seen very well, but some of them are not good to handle our matches at all. We have to find a way for our referees to get better. The federation needs to arrangement a situation where some of the young referees will be paired with the experienced ones to officiate liek three matches for them to get a chance to grow into the game.

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The problem is that there are some referees that have been officiating for a long time in the league, but they are not competent to handle matches. The federation needs to take a stand on these referees and find a way to either re-train them or turn them into match commissioners. They are just not good enough to still be handling matches in the premier league.

The D’Tigers are expected to begin camping on Monday (today) in Abuja ahead of the 2013 Afrobasket in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. As the head coach of the team, what should we expect from the camping?

Well, the camping is going to be for four days in Abuja and it is for the players that are plying their trade in the country. Actually, 12 players playing for various clubs in the home front have been invited for the camping and we are hoping to see if we could get a couple of them to join some of their counterparts that are playing overseas. We hope they would show the required ability to be part of the team that will represent Nigeria at the Afrobasket proper.

When is the combined camping  likely to take place?

That is going to be after the first phase of camping in Abuja and it is going to hold in the USA, Europe and China.

How do you see our chances at the Afrobasket?

Failure to prepare is like we are preparing to fail. As you can see that we have begun preparation for the tournament and definitely we are not going to fail Nigerians.

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