The D’Tigers returned to Nigeria on Thursday after the team featured at the 2018 FIBA 3X3 World Cup in Philippines, which ended on Tuesday.

The Nigerian men’s basketball team featured at the tournament for the first time as they competed in Group D alongside Latvia, Ukraine, Croatia and Jordan.

The team made up of Kano Pillars’ quartet of Yahaya Abdul, Dike Azuoma, David Godwin and Lucky Subel failed to progress from the group stage after finishing 4th in their group.

In the end, D’Tigers, ranked 66th by FIBA, emerged the 17th best team at the 20-team World Cup won by Serbia.

Frank Jituboh, the leader of the Nigerian delegation to Philippines, while speaking about the tournament via a statement revealed that the team’s performance in the Asian country was encouraging.

Jituboh said: “I am satisfied with the performance of the boys being their first time at this level. The experience garnered playing against the best teams around the world will be very important going forward.”

“We are eagerly waiting for the revised ranking at the end of this month to see the effect of our World Cup outing. I will be reporting back to the federation with special emphasis placed on the need to have a 3×3 league in Nigeria which will help us have bigger pool of players for future selections.” The statement further read.