Duro Ikhazuagbe

The slide in Nigeria’s sports has again manifest in Rades, Tunisia as the country’s senior men’s basketball team, D’Tigers, yesterday lost a second game in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 African Qualifiers to Guinea. 

Earlier on Friday, the 2015 Afrobasket champions lost 78-88 to hosts Tunisia before against beaten 69-55 by Guinea yesterday.

Guinea made history by beating D’Tigers for the first time in their history. 

Souleyman Boum Jr. and Shannon Evans made some crucial plays to help the Guineans overcome the D’Tigers. Guinea won all the four quarters 22-16, 13-10, 17-15 and 17-14 .

The two playmakers (Boum and Evans) combined for 40 points in the win, improving their record to 2–0 with one game remaining in the opening round of the 2027 World Cup African qualifiers. 

Prior to Saturday’s match, Nigeria had a 3–0 head-to-head advantage over Guinea, dating back to the 1985 African Championship in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

Since returning to the AfroBasket in 2017 after a 32-year absence, Guinea had faced Nigeria twice during the 2023 World Cup African Qualifiers and lost both encounters.

However, on Saturday, Guinea outperformed Nigeria, leading by as many as 19 points, leaving Nigeria’s head coach, Abdulrahman Mohamed, searching for answers.

Nigeria became the second top-10 African team to fall to Guinea, who defeated the No. 1 team on the continent, South Sudan, during the 2025 AfroBasket in Angola. 

It remains to be seen how the Nigerian senior men’s team will salvage what is left of their campaign as they face Rwanda in the last group game today in Tunisia.

Basketball insiders however confided in THISDAY last night that the failure of D’Tigers in the first two games was expected following the poor preparations of the team ahead of the 2027 World Cup qualifiers.

It was learnt that the squad Coach Abdulrahman Mohamed took to the tournament only camped for two days  before heading to Tunisia.

Apart from the poor preparations, it was also learnt that some of the players in the squad were not of the quality known of the D’Tigers, a situation attributed to poor judgement of the coaches in picking the team.

“Some of the kindergarten players only met here in Tunisia with the rest of the squad. So what type of results were you expecting from the team? It is obvious that neither the NBBF nor the leadership of the National Sports Commission take the FIBA World Cup 2027 African Qualifiers as a serious event to be given proper attention,” observed the top basketball personality to THISDAY last night.

Guinea’s celebration of the victory over  Nigeria last night  was highly significant, as Salle Omnisports de Rades was where they made their first appearance after their three-decade absence from elite African basketball. 

In 2017, Guinea returned home with a 0–3 record after the African Championship at Salle Omnisports de Rades. 

Tunisia, the team that beat them by one point at the very end of their 2025 AfroBasket Qualifiers game, are their next opponents today.

Guinea’s Head Coach, Nedeljko Ascerić, is feeling so confident that he hopes to see a “full house”.

“It feels amazing. Winning these two games, beating Nigeria and playing well,” Boum Jr said.

Ascerić attributed his team’s victory over Nigeria to the X-factor. “The X-factor for our win was our defence; we’ve only allowed them (D’Tigers) only a 27% in field-goals,” the coach told FIBA.basketball.