Nigeria’s female basketball national team, D’Tigress’ head coach, Rena Wakama is already thinking about how to marshal her squad to heroics at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, USA.
READ ALSO: Wakama: D’Tigress Must Rebuild After World Cup Collapse — “We Can’t Live on Paris Glory”
Sports247 reports that Wakama is still thinking of achieving big things with the Nigerian squad, despite her inability to win a single game with the team at this year’s FIBA Women’s Senior Basketball World Cup in Berlin, Germany.
After earlier losing to South Korea and Hungary in their first two games of Group B, D’Tigress slumped to a blowout 111-56 defeat by France to wrap up their winless outing.
However, rather than sulk over the slumps, Wakama is picking positives and recalled that the seven-time African champions previously showed signs of huge days ahead at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, France.
While describing the squad she took to Berlin as part of a rebuilding process, Wakama enthused that her array of young players would have blended better, matured and ripened when it’s time to aim for glory at Los Angeles 2028.
Wakama retorted, “A lot of people saw what we did in 2024, and the reality of where we are today is that we’re in a rebuilding process. We can’t rely on the success we had two years ago. Who we are today, we’re still figuring that out, and I know we will.
“A lot of those players are in playoff shape. They play in the WNBA, and my players just weren’t there yet to be able to compete at the level that they were competing at. I’m most proud of our fight.
“When you have a new team and I have so many young players, I think I have about five or six young players on this team who have never been at this stage before, some of whom just graduated from college.”
The boisterous tactician then looked to the immediate future, with a bright ray of hope that Nigeria’s ability to call-up talented players from USA’s Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) would play a key role in helping D’Tigress stay strong and do better in all their subsequent outings.
Wakama reasoned further, “It starts with just who we’re getting in the uniforms, right? Just making sure that I’m continuing to put the best talent that Nigeria has to offer in these uniforms.
“We had great preparation, but I think there’s another level that we have to get to in that preparation. This is the best time to be a part of women’s basketball specifically.”
