The men’s national basketball team D’Tigers have dropped six places in the latest FIBA World Rankings released by the world body on Tuesday.D’Tigers had dropped 10 places from 16th to 26th in November but finished the month in the 32nd position in the rankings, amassing 211.4 points.
The former African champions however retained their place as the continent’s number one side.Angola, 33rd in the rankings with 202.6, retained their second place in Africa despite not moving any step up, while Senegal are third with 178.2 points, and 36th in the global rankings.
African champions Tunisia (125.1 points) are 46th in the world and fourth in Africa. Egypt (51), Ivory Coast (65), Morocco (67) Cameroon (70), Mali (74) and Central African Republic (79) occupy the remaining places in the top 10 positions on the continent.
Meanwhile, former D’Tigers coach Ayodele Bakare has lamented the slide of D’Tigers in the latest FIBA ranking.Bakare, the first coach to lead the men’s basketball team to an Olympics in 2012, expressed sadness over the leadership tussle in the Nigeria Basketball Federation that has seen Tijjani Umar and Musa Ahmadu-Kida running two parallel NBBF boards.
Speaking further, Bakare said despite repeated communication with the federation, on how the game was being administered, the Ahmadu-Kida-led board had not responded to his letters.
NBBF spokesman Afolabi Oni said they would respond to Bakare’s letters once the dilemma in the basketball sector was resolved.Oni stated, “He has written 12 letters to the NBBF, saying he wants to know how the federation is run and the issue of sponsorship. And we assured him that when the situation stabilises, the federation would reply him.
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