NIGERIA : Afrobasket - the cup is our target -Oguchi

The senior national basketball team, D,Tigers, left for Libya, venue of the 19th edition of the Afrobasket championship, on Saturday night, with its sight fixed on winning the elusive trophy.

Nigeria has not won the trophy despite coming close several times. In 1997, it lost to the host, Senegal in the final, while it also lost in the final to Angola two years later. In 2003, it qualified for the final, only to lose to Angola again.

The team wing player, Chamberlain Oguchi, spoke the minds of his teammates in an exclusive interview on Saturday, in Lagos.

"The cup is the target and nothing else. Anything short of the trophy is no achievement", he said during the team dinner in Lagos, on Saturday, before their departure.

Oguchi, who was born in the USA, has had a fare share of the team,s travail.

In his first appearance for the team in 2005, in Algeria, he was instrumental to the team,s bronze medal win, as he bombed Algeria with 18 points to qualify Nigeria for the World Championship in Japan.

In Japan, he did well to get Nigeria qualify for the second round for the first time, while in Angola in 2007, due to poor preparation, the team failed to make it past the quarter-final, losing to Cape Verde.

But the new Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) hierarchy, desirous of making an impact, employed American John Lucas as coach.

Lucas has assembled a team, and expectedly, it was dominated by American based Nigerians. And Oguchi is one of them.

"We have a team", says the team assistant coach, Masai Ujiri."The team is athletics, defensively good, can run and aggressive.We are ready for the trophy and we just have to win it this time", Oguchi said.