Mike Brown opens up on D’Tigers poor defending against Germany
The coach of Nigeria men’s basketball coach, Mike Brown has blamed Tuesday’s 99-92 loss to Germany on poor defending.
Mike Brown spoke to the media after his African champions lost their second goal game to the Europeans, despite making strong start to the match.
The defeat means D’Tigers can’t finish in Group B top two, but can still advance to the next round as one of the best placed teams.
“Our main identity is we felt like we were a good defensive team coming into this tournament and our guys had done a tremendous job on that side of the ball.
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“But it’s going to be tough to beat anybody when you don’t defend. We did not do a good job defending, 47 percent from the three-point line, on top of that you have 23 free throws.”
“It’s tough to overcome. We talked about defending the three-point line against these guys, talked about not sending them to the free throw line, and we talked about taking care of the ball. And 18 turnovers weren’t bad, but because a handful of those were offensive fouls, we have to be smarter in that area. But the way that we defended tonight, it is just not who we are,” stated an apparently disappointed Brown.