The National Male Basketball team, D’Tigers camp will open on Saturday, Aug. 20 in Abidjan in preparations for window four of the 2023 FIBA World Cup qualifiers.

This is contained in a statement by Afolabi Oni, on behalf of the Media Committee of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) on Thursday.

He quoted the team’s head coach, Mike Brown, as saying this became necessary to address the slow start in the first two windows when the team lost to Cape Verde.

”Knowing the task ahead in its quest to qualify for the World Cup, the team needs to get more training under their belt before they face host- Cote d’Ivoire on Friday, at Palais des Sports Treichville.

“We are trying to get there earlier to see whether we can have a few more practices to see whether we can get ready to perform at a little higher level in game one.

”In the last window, things were put together at the last second and we went there right before the first game,” he said.

Brown added that he was optimistic that early preparations would make a difference when his players step on the court for their first game.

“Hopefully, with us getting there a little earlier, getting three or four practices under our belt, it will show a little bit of difference when it comes to playing the games”, Brown was quoted as saying.

The D’ Tigers currently fourth on the table, will play its opener against host- Cote d’Ivoire on Aug. 26.

They will afterwards face Guinea a day after before squaring up against Angola on Aug. 28.

The 2023 World Cup is billed to hold from Aug. 25 to Sept. 10 in Japan, Indonesia, and the Philippines.