1. Contents
Nigeria Olympic Basketball Team: 2012 Roster Predictions & Analysis ....................................................... 1
Guards ........................................................................................................................................................... 2
Forwards ....................................................................................................................................................... 3
Centers .......................................................................................................................................................... 4
Head Coach ................................................................................................................................................... 5
Best Case Scenario ........................................................................................................................................ 5
Worst Case Scenario ..................................................................................................................................... 6
Predictions .................................................................................................................................................... 6
Some facts ..................................................................................................................................................... 6
References .................................................................................................................................................... 7

2. Nigeria Olympic Basketball Team: 2012
Roster Predictions & Analysis
First the bad news: Nigeria’s senior national basketball team, D’Tigers failed to get the
automatic slot for the Summer Olympics and will now need to participate in the play-offs
against 11 other FIBA Olympic teams where 3 spots are up for grab in order to qualify for the
Summer Olympics. The qualifying phase starts July 2nd.
Now, the good news: D’Tigers still has a good chance of qualifying for the Summer Olympics
and the team is currently taking the right steps in preparing for the preliminary stages. The
team just partook in a host of international friendly games with teams in the Chinese league
by winning all 3 games and is now en-route to the United States to play against the Great
Britain national team in Houston, America on June 21st before honoring a 4-nation tourney
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3. from June 25-30 in Brazil where they will play against Greece, Brazil and New Zealand
before heading for Caracas, Venezuela.
More bad news: D’Tigers who rank 26 on the FIBA ranking list are pitted against the likes of
Lithuania (FIBA Ranking 6) and the host nation Venezuela (FIBA Ranking 35) and in group B
of the qualifying rounds. Also, D’Tigers will have to do it all without Ime Udoka, one of the
most influential players who will miss out due to personal reasons.
Guards
Starters: Michael Umeh, Solomon Tat
Reserves: Jayson Obazuaye, Abubakar
Usman
Quick Hits:
1. D’Tigers will be without star player Ime
Udoka whose position will now be left
upon to Michael Umeh to shoulder. As a
PG, Umeh was a key player for his team
during the FIBA tournament of 2011 and
his scoring abilities will be needed once
more if the D’Tigers are to progress to the
Summer Olympics.
Figure 1 Michael UMEH
2. The primary SG should be Solomon Tat, a 6”5” player playing for Team Manchester, ESL
(USA). He averaged 5.7 PPG in the just concluded FIBA tournament 2011.
3. After Umeh and Tat, the pack thins to future as subs in my opinion are Jayson Obazuaye
and Abubakar Usman both of whom featured in the FIBA 2011 tournament.
By the Numbers:
11.7 PPG — Michael Umeh averaged 11.7 points per game during FIBA 2011.
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4. Forwards
Starter: Derrick Obasahon
Reserves: Stanley Gumut, Chinedu Onyeuku
Quick Hits:
1. Arguable this is Nigeria’s top ace man in
basketball. His performances in the last
FIBA tournament was key to Nigeria’s
success in winning the bronze medal and
should have perhaps even won the
tournament only if other teammates were
up to Obasahon’s standard on the court.
2. Without Obasahon, the likes of Stanley
Gumut and Chinedu Onyeuku who both
play for clubs in Africa would have to void in
Figure 2 Derrick OBASAHON for the electrifying Derrick Obasahon.
By the Numbers:
19 — Points scored by Derrick Obasahon against the Ivory Coast to win the bronze medal.
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5. Centers
Starters: Olumide Oyedeji, Ejike Ugboaja
Reserve: Ezenwa Ukeagu, Ikechukwu Ofoegbu
Quick Hits:
1. Center forward Olumide Oyedeji and power
forward Ejike Ugboaja both featured regularly
averaging 8 and 10.4 PPG respectively in the
FIBA 2011 tournament.
2. Ukeagu and Ofoegbu also featured in the
tournament averaging 5 and 5.5 PPG
respectively.
Figure 3 Olumide OYEDEJI
By the Numbers:
93 — Number of NBA games played by Olumide Oyedeji for the Seattle Supersonics, the
most by any current player in the team.
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6. Head Coach
Figure 4 Ayo BAKARE
Ayo Bakare has done wonders for the team since taking charge in 2008 and has so far won
the bronze medal at the FIBA Africa Championship tournament 2011. Most of the players
listed here participated in that tournament so it should proof an advantage for him given that
they’ve all worked hard together to reach the preliminary rounds of the Summer Olympics
2012.
Bakare has insisted that he has no doubts that his team can scale through the preliminary
rounds but only if they receive the full funding to handle their preparations (Sanchez, 2012).
Since the team has so far has already played 3 friendly games and is on-course to the
United States, we can only assume that he has received his funding to prepare D’Tigers for
the preliminary rounds.
Best Case Scenario
D’Tigers overcomes the might of Lithuania and Venezuela to qualify for the Summer
Olympics by taking the first or second spot to avoid group B of the Summer Olympics.
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7. Worst Case Scenario
D’Tigers misses out on the Summer Olympics entirely if they fail to qualify or if they qualify as
the third team which in my opinion should be avoided, that will mean the D’Tigers will be
grouped together with the likes of Spain, Brazil, Great Britain and China!
Predictions
The preliminary round consists of 12 teams with only 3 available slots for the Summer
Olympics stage. Other teams in this round are Greece, Jordan, Puerto Rico, Korea, Russia,
Dominican Republic, Angola, FYROM, New Zealand, Lithuania and Venezuela. Predications
so far rest on Venezuela, Lithuania and Angola given that Venezuela is the host nation,
Lithuania has a higher FIBA ranking and Angola just finished 2nd place in the 2011 FIBA
tournament ahead of D’Tigers. The odds are not for us.
Some facts
Nicknames: D’Tigers
Coach: Sergio Scariolo
Best Olympic Finish: Nil
FIBA World Rank: 26
How They Qualified for the Olympics: (Still in progress)
Oldest Player: Derrick Obasahon (31)
Youngest Player: Abubakar Usman (26)
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8. References
1. Kigbu, I (2012). Basketball: Nigeria Grabs Olympics Playoffs Slot [online] Available at
http://leadership.ng Accessed 20th June 2012.
2. Sanchez, K. (2012). Olympics Games: Coach Ayo Bakare sure that Nigeria will go to London
Available at http://www.starafrica.com/ Accessed 20th June 2012.
Appendix
1. FIBA – International Basketball Federation
2. PPG – Points Per Game
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