Basketball: Organisers release fixtures for Pre-Olympic qualifying tournament

Ifeanyi Eduzor
Organisers of the forthcoming FIBA Pre- Olympic qualifying tournament has released fixtures for the competition expected to dunk off on August, 14, 2023 at Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.
According to the fixtures, Nigeria’s senior men national basketball team
D’Tigers, will begin their quest to reach the 2024 Paris Olympic Games against familiar foes in Victoria Island.
Nigeria has been placed in the same group A with Senegal, Mali and Uganda in tournament which dunks off on Monday the 14th of August at the Basketball court of Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island in Lagos.
D’Tigers under the leadership of Coach Ogor Odaudu will start their challenging, difficult and long trip to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris,French with a tough and tricky tie against Senegal on Monday before taking on Mali on Tuesday.
Their last group A game will be on Thursday against East African emerging force, Uganda that will start their journey against Mali on Monday and Senegal on Tuesday.
15 players, 5 from the domestic league and 10 from United States and Europe led by Chimezie Metu of the Sacramento Kings have been called up by the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) to camp for this all important tournament while Coach Ogor Odaudu will lead the D’Tigers.
Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea and Tunisia are the teams in group B of the FIBA Pre-Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
Cameroon have a date to keep with Guinea in the first game of the group by on Tuesday while Tunisia takes on Democratic Republic of Congo the same day by 3pm.
On Wednesday, Democratic Republic of Congo faces Guinea and Tunisia battles Cameroon. The last sets of group B matches comes up on Friday.
By 3pm, Guinea and Tunisia will step on the court followed by the 6pm fireworks between Central Africa neighbours Cameroon and Democratic Republic of Congo.
The top two teams in each group advance into Saturday’s semi- finals and winners of the semi- finals games will be on court again on Sunday to determine who wins the 2023 FIBA Pre-olympic qualifying tournament and move to the next phase, the FIBA qualifiers as Africa’s flag bearer.

GROUP A
Senegal
Mali
Uganda
Nigeria

GROUP B
DR Congo
Cameroon
Tunisia
Guinea