‘We were good and ready for the gold’

The head coach of First Bank basketball club has said proper preparations are responsible for the team's success at the 15th edition of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) African Champions Club for Women held in Benin Republic from November 13 to 22.

Still basking in the euphoria of his team's triumph after six attempts at the continental championship, Adewunmi Aderemi said, "There is no way you can win a tournament without first preparing. When a team has enough time to prepare they will be a challenge for the best teams anywhere."

Aderemi, who also doubles as Nigeria's U-16 basketball team coach, recalled the D' Tigress' dismal outing at the FIBA Africa championship in October, and revealed that the national team's faulty preparations and not technical deficiencies, were responsible for its failure to qualify for next year's FIBA World Championships in Czech Republic.

"D' Tigress were camped for only nine days and out of these days they trained for just five. That kind of team cannot win any competition.

"We have all it takes to dominate Africa basketball and to do it we need a team that play as a team. I think the girls did not really adapt to one another before going for the tournament."

In camp five times

Revealing the contrast in First Bank and D' Tigress preparations, Aderemi who led the reigning African club queens to eight African championships, said his team started readying for the tournament eleven months ago and were camped five times in Zaria, Kaduna State.

"To get ourselves tuned up for the game, we were camped five times this year for no less than 30 days each time; five of my players to the championship played with us in the league. We were good and ready for the gold before the foreign- based players joined us."

Commenting on the First Bank team, assistant coach of Dodan Warriors Basketball Club, Peter Ahmedu said it could help in building the national team.

He said the team's success was achieved through the combination of home players with foreign based players and the technical expertise of the coaching crew.

The tactician said: "First Bank's success wasn't really surprising, Aderemi is renowned in the country for his exploits with women basketball; he is the reason why First Bank has dominated the Nigerian basketball league for so long. The qualifiers did not go well but the girls overcame it eventually."

Stressing that over reliance on foreign based players has been the country's undoing in past championships, Ahmedu noted that using a combination of both foreign and home based players, D' Tigress will be formidable.

"Including players in the country we will fortify the team; the home teams had the opportunity to fuse together as a team while waiting for those abroad to join them," he stressed.