On Wednesday 21st February, the Nigeria Basketball Federation, through their X (formerly Twitter) account announced that the D’Tigers (Nigerian Men’s Basketball National team) had withdrawn from the upcoming Afrobasket Qualifiers in Tunisia citing the lack of funds.

A few hours later, they put out another post saying “The Federation is aiming to finalize a roster and gather funds in time to play in the Afrobasket Qualifiers”.

Nigeria is in group B along side Cape Verde, Libya and Uganda and they are set to play the Silverbacks on Saturday 24th at 11:00 local time.

Eventualities

In case Nigeria doesn’t show up, all their games will be scrapped ( for the first window) and a decision will have to be made.

The Afrobasket Qualifiers is played in 3 windows and the top 3 teams in each group after the first 2 windows qualify straight to the Afrobasket.

Each team plays their opponents twice, once in each of the first 2 windows.

In case Nigeria’s games are scrapped in the first window and they want to participate in the second,  it will still be an uphill task for them to finish in the top 3, unless any of the other 3 teams doesn’t show up in window 2.

That means Uganda, Cape Verde and Libya will all be making the 2025 Afrobasket without breaking a sweat.

Some inside sources have it that Morocco would have been invited to replace Nigeria but given that there’s less than 24 hours to the start of the tournament and Nigeria still has hopes of showing up, it will be very unlikely to see Morocco participate.

What next for Silverbacks?

The Silverbacks traveled to Tunisia on 18th February and as per Tony Drileba, a Silverbacks player, the boys have been getting acclimatized with the conditions in Monastir.

Uganda has will be facing very familiar opponents in Nigeria and Cape Verde, and these teams most recently played each other during the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup African Qualifiers.

Uganda picked up a single victory in 9 games and that came in their opening game against Cape Verde (77:74) on 27th November 2021.

In their second fixture against each other, Walter Tavares was the Achilles heel for the Silverbacks, scoring a 21 points, 6 rebounds and 2 blocks. Cape Verde went ahead to win the game 87:78.

Uganda also faced Nigeria in two fixtures and the D’Tigers were very superior winning 95:69 and 91:72.

In case Nigeria shows up, the Silverbacks shall be going up a somewhat disorganized side and they will be having a very big opportunity to secure a win given that they have had much more preparation than the Nigerians.

Rumors also have it that Walter Tavares may not participate for Cape Verde and that is one person the team didn’t want to meet again. With him potentially out, Uganda might as well dominate in the paint and do a repeat of 27th November 2021.

Fixtures

Cape Verde vs Uganda  Friday 13:00

Uganda vs Nigeria Saturday 13:00

Libya vs Uganda Sunday 16:00