News

TEHRAN (FIBA Asia Challenge 2016) – India made the Quarter final as they beat Kazakhstan, 100-90 to register their 3rd Victory at the FIBA Asia Challenge 2016 in Tehran, Iran, India now seeded as the fourth team from Group E, which means they will face host Iran the topper in the other group who are here fielding the same team that played in Rio Olympics, even though India will be tremendous underdogs, but if they play this well, anything can happen

Kazakhstan had a good start on India in the first quarter, leading 21-19, but India came back strongly in the 2nd quarter to take a 9-point advantage into the halftime The Man for India today was Talwinderjit Singh better known as TJ Sahi who led India to their first back-to-back wins in the competition was also  the top scorer for India with 32 points together with big man Amritpal Singh scoring 28 points

Kazakhstan rallied in the third period closing the gap to 77-75, but, again, India had the proper counterpunch in the final frame, Amritpal, Amjyot Singh and Yadwinder Singh combined for an 8-0 run to give India a 10-point lead that they would sustain till the final buzzer. Vishesh  and Amrithpal also contributed with  double figures scoring 13 and 12 points respectively for India’s victory  

Basketball Dramas in India Curtailing the Progress of the game

Back home in India, basketball has been embroiled with controversy and FIBA has approved Govindraj faction and the IOA and govt with the other, FIBA approved faction is sending the team without Govt Support nor the  money, FIBA – BFI faction are finding their own way to run the camps and teams are now sending with the  Money they are finding, how many years this can continue and go ,since IOA and SAI has not approved nor supporting.
  
Many players have suffered over the past year, first in a tug-of-war between the Basketball Federation of India’s (BFI) two opposing executive committees and later, further drama between the BFI and the UBA Basketball League. In the middle of this toxic atmosphere, the improved performances of the Men’s national team have provided much-needed respite

There are a number of big names who were not able to make a way in to the team , due to a variety of reasons. At the top of the list is India’s first NBA draftee Satnam Singh, who was named in the list of probable’s in mid-August but won’t be making the final cut due to his commitments in the NBA’s D-League in Texas. Also following his footsteps in the USA is Palpreet Singh, the winner of the ACG-NBA Jump programme this year, who is currently preparing for the D-League tryouts.
 
It’s very important to get an International exposure for the team and the William Jones Cup which held a month earlier was a fantastic opportunity for all of our players,” Coach C V Sunny (Kerala) now become as asst coach this time in his  interview with hoopisthani  reported that two of his important players – Arvind Arumugam and Aravind Annadurai – didn’t make the training camp due to injury. And BFI’s ban on UBA league participants meant that a couple of important members of the squad that defeated China in the FIBA Asia Cup two years ago – Narender Grewal and Joginder Singh – weren’t allowed to play for the national team, either.
 
Remember two years ago, when this tournament was last held in Wuhan (China), India achieved a miracle. Led by American head coach Scott Flemming and the ‘big three’ of Amjyot Singh, Amrit Pal Singh, and Vishesh Bhriguvanshi, the players that dominated now they defeated Asia’s top-ranked basketball team and hosts China 65-58 in the Preliminary Round, while giving major headaches top three sides Iran and Philippines later in the tournament. The ‘Wonder of Wuhan’ was India’s biggest-ever basketball victory. Flemming left the national squad a year later, but the spark was ignited for India to dream of greater successes in the future. India relied on the all-round brilliance of Amjyot Singh to notch several key victories and make the Quarter-Final stage. They finished at 8th place, their best seeding in the continent in a dozen years
 
The  performances earned them professional contracts in Japan, first in the BJ Summer League and then in Japan’s D-League which have helped these two Punjabi big men to dominate the competitions this year too along with Vishesh Briguvanshi and also  with the experienced T J Shahi who is back in to the team who also had the professional experience outside.
 
It will also unfair if I don’t mentioned the efforts of coaching staffs Satprakash Yadav the men who also was lucky coach to bring Indian Women   in to level 1 at Incheon Korea  in 2007   and C V Sunny (kerala) former point Guard in 80s and 90s who took along with P J Sebastian as Asst coach for SABA qualifying championship at Bangalore and later as coach at William Jones cup in at Taiwan