Women basketball national team coach, Scott Nnaji, has blamed Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games on poor preparation ahead of the qualifiers.

Speaking on the performance of the team, also known as D’Tigress, in the FIBA Olympics qualifying tournament held in France, Nnaji told The Guardian that failure to play quality friendlies and inadequate exposure before the qualifiers were factors that worked against the team in the championship.

He said D’Tigress had the quality to beat Belarus and Korea in the qualifiers based on the caliber of players that represented the country in the championship, adding, however, that they were not well equipped for the matches.

The Customs of Lagos coach said the team worked hard to qualify for the Olympics, but luck was not on their side.“We could not paly enough friendlies before the championship. There were other problems here and there, which affected the team, including failure to not get all the players needed for some friendlies.

“The late arrival of players affected the team’s blending process. The girls gave their best but the odds were against them,” he said.Nnaji advised the sports ministry to always provide funds for every national team that qualified for international tournaments in the future to feature in such events, as well as ensure that they have quality preparation ahead of the tournament. “This will go a long way to put the team in top form before the competition,’’ he said.

The Guardian recalls that D’Tigress bounced back from their opening day defeat to Belarus in the FIBA qualifiers, by beating South Korea 70-69 in their second game. The win had given the Nigerian ladies hope of featuring at the Olympics but such expectations were dashed after Korea shocked Belarus 66-65. Had Belarus beaten Korea as it was widely expected, D’Tigress would have advanced to the final play-off for a place in the Rio 2016 Olympics.