D’Tigress Await Wakama’s Arrival Ahead of World Cup

Nigeria’s D’Tigress are awaiting the arrival of head coach Rena Wakama as they enter the final phase of preparations for the 2026 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup in Germany.

Wakama, who is currently in the United States due to her professional commitments with WNBA franchise Chicago Sky, is expected to rejoin the national team before the tournament begins.

The World Cup is scheduled to take place from September 4 to 13, with Nigeria set to move to Zaragoza, Spain, for the final stage of their preparations.

Wakama has continued to combine her responsibilities as Nigeria’s head coach with her role as an assistant coach at Chicago Sky. The WNBA franchise appointed her to its coaching staff in April under head coach Tyler Marsh.

D’Tigress began their World Cup preparations with a training camp in Chicago from July 29 to August 2 before travelling to China for a three-game exhibition series.

Nigeria subsequently moved to Spain, where they continued their preparations with warm-up matches against some of Europe’s leading teams.

The final phase in Zaragoza is expected to include preparation games against Mali and Puerto Rico before the team travels to Berlin for the World Cup.

Nigeria have endured a challenging build-up, winning just one of their five warm-up matches so far.

They lost 70-67 and 69-65 against China before recovering to defeat the hosts 88-77 on August 12.

However, the African champions suffered heavy defeats in their latest two matches in Tenerife, losing 83-58 to Spain on August 21 and 90-55 to Belgium the following day.

The results have highlighted areas requiring improvement ahead of the tournament.

Despite the difficult preparations, D’Tigress enter the World Cup as reigning African champions after winning a fifth consecutive FIBA Women’s AfroBasket title in 2025, defeating Mali 78-64 in the final.

Nigeria also made history at the Paris 2024 Olympics by becoming the first African team to reach the Olympic quarter-finals.

D’Tigress secured their direct qualification for the 2026 World Cup after winning the 2025 AfroBasket.

The tournament will mark Nigeria’s third appearance at the World Cup, following previous participations in 2006 and 2018. Their best performance came in 2018, when they reached the quarter-finals and finished eighth overall.