Rio Olympics: William Voigt Sets Knock Out Stage Target For D'Tigers

The name, William Voigt, became a household name in the history of Nigerian Basketball after he became the first coach to lead Nigeria to their first FIBA African championship  victory in Tunisia last year.

The American trainer has once again reiterated that his plans is to set another target with D’Tigers-

becoming the first African country to make it out of the group stage at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games this summer.

The D’Tigers have been grouped with hosts Brazil, Argentina, Lithuania, Spain and a team that will qualify via one of the three Olympic Qualifying Tournaments.

 

"We have very high aspirations as a team. If you are to ask any of our players going in to Tunisia, really our goal was to make history. We went there to win that tournament, that was our mindset. Even though it had never been done before, that’s how we looked at it. That’s our mindset going into the Olympics."

"We want to be the first team in the African history to get out of the group stages. That’s our focus. I know that our guys will be disappointed if we don’t achieve that."

"We are opening against Argentina, that’s where our mindset is right now. They are former champions. We can’t ignore that fact. This is a team that has won it all. They are going to be a formidable opponent. Obviously they have a lot of experience, they have been playing together for a long time and they had a lot of success. They present a number of different challenges."

"I don’t know if there is such a thing of an easy group in the Olympics."

"We are talking about the best teams in the world. But, certainly when you see the number two, number three, number four ranked teams in the world and the host nation – all in this group – it certainly presents a challenge." FIBA