This feature was first published in my column for Ekalavyas on September 4, 2016. You can find the original version here.
Team India aims to take a major leap – again – at the 2016 FIBA Asia Challenge
When CV Sunny, former point guard of the Indian national
basketball team in the 80s and 90s, got a chance to re-join the squad as
coaching staff, his latest tenure began as easily as it possibly could. Sunny’s
first order of business was to help India win the South Asian Basketball
Association (SABA) Qualifiers in Bengaluru against Maldives, Nepal, and
Bangladesh, a task the team accomplished while barely breaking a sweat: India
won all three games by an average margin of 48 points each and qualified for the
2016 FIBA Asia Challenge.
But less than a few weeks after the South Asian triumph,
Sunny got a reminder of heartbreak on hardwood floors. He was moved from
Assistant Coach to Head Coach for India in time for the team’s first game of
the William Jones Cup – an invitational basketball tournament held in Chinese
Taipei – against the American college squad from the California State
University. Even without the presence of their captain Amrit Pal Singh and
Basil Philip (who
missed
the first three games of the William Jones Cup due to a visa error), India
battled neck-to-neck against the Americans. They seemed headed for a surprise
opening win, when, Justin Strings – the star of the night for the opponents –
hit a cold-blooded, well-defended three-pointer to push the score to 62-60 with
21 seconds left in the game. India failed to score in their final possession
and Sunny experienced his first international loss as coach.
The eight-game tournament churned out a series of more
disappointments, particularly India’s overtime loss to hosts Taipei Blue, once
again, from a winnable position. India were the lowest-ranked team in the
tournament, but by the time Amrit Pal and Philip returned to the squad, they had
enough momentum to defeat the hosts’ ‘B-Team’, Taipei White 77-63. Against
higher ranked physical teams such as Egypt, Iran and eventual winners Mighty
Sports of the Philippines, India were neck-to-neck through most of the contest,
but lack of concentration in small stretches cost them a victory.
They
showed potential throughout the tournament but finished 1-7.
A few weeks later, when I asked the coach about the final
results, his disposition remained as sunny as his name. In the past, leading up
to major Asian tournaments, India rarely got a chance to play in preparatory
games to give their players exposure against top-level basketball players and
develop team chemistry. This time around, the William Jones Cup seemed to
arrive in the opportune time, a little over a month before the FIBA Asia
Challenge, to give Sunny an encouraging sign of things to come.
“It’s very important to get exposure and the William Jones
Cup was a fantastic opportunity for all of our players,” Sunny told me on
Episode
35 of the Hoopdarshan podcast. “These were eight good matches against all
better teams. This is going to help India in the FIBA Asia Basketball Challenge,
one hundred percent.”
*
FIBA Asia, the continent’s governing body of basketball, have
courted confusion when they introduced their
‘New Competition System’ earlier
this year. The FIBA Asia Championship, the biggest Asian basketball tournament,
is now renamed the ‘FIBA Asia Cup’ and scheduled to be held every four years
starting in 2017. This newly-remixed Cup will also include teams from Oceania,
like Australia and New Zealand.
But FIBA Asia already holds a biennial secondary Asian
tournament called the FIBA Asia Cup (formerly the Stankovic Cup), and in lieu
of recent changes, this tournament has since been renamed the ‘
FIBA Asia Challenge’. From
September 9-16, the sixth iteration of this tournament, for the first time
under its new moniker, will be held in Tehran, Iran, the home of the two-time
reigning champions.
Whatever the name may be, India will always have fond
memories of this competition. 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,
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.
In the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship (which will be the FIBA
Asia Cup from 2017) back in China, Indian basketball’s spark continued to burn.
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.
Amjyot and Amrit Pal’s recent performances earned them
professional contracts in Japan, first in the BJ Summer League and then in
Japan’s D-League. The two Punjabi big men dominated both competitions.
*
Now with the FIBA Asia Challenge looming, the team seems
ready to continue their improved run of play and take another major leap
forward. While most teams consider this a ‘secondary’ tournament and some hold
back their top talents,
India will be
sending their best-available line-up – a healthy mix of youth and
experience – to Tehran. Head Coach Sat Prakash Yadav along with CV Sunny will
marshal the troops from the bench.
There are a number of big names who were not able to make
the cut, 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 probables 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.
Coach Sunny 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.
Although India will definitely miss the star power of Satnam
and the depth in reserve provided by the other key individuals named above,
their absence has opened the door for several young prodigious talents. Recent
senior team debutants Arshpreet Bhullar and Ravi Bhardwaj will continue their
dream run with the senior squad. Following his stellar performances at the FIBA
U18 Asia Championship – also in Tehran – young shooting guard Hariram Ragupathy
will return to Iran now with the senior squad and hope to show his potential at
the bigger stage.
The dilemma for Sunny and the
coaching staff will be the starting point guard position, which is up for grabs
between Akilan Pari and Talwinderjit Singh ‘TJ’ Sahi. Pari is better at
combining with his teammates and, in Sunny’s words, is a better “organiser” of
the game. But TJ is the better shooter and faster at getting from coast to
coast. It’s the eternal battle between the ‘pass-first’ and the ‘score-first’
point guards. “The decision will depend game by game and opponent by opponent,”
said Sunny.
As it has been in recent years,
however, India’s performances will eventually depend on the performances of our
Big Three – Amjyot Singh, captain Amrit Pal Singh, and Vishesh Bhriguvanshi –
who will have to shoulder the heaviest burden for the ‘Young Cagers’. Vishesh,
a versatile off-guard, has been enjoying a return to form and remains an elite
talent across the continent. Amjyot and Amrit Pal, both in their early 20s, are
two of the best big men in Asia. Amrit Pal has developed into a star
post-defender, while Amjyot has added variety to his offensive game to dominate
from the perimeter as well as the post.
“These three are going to be the best,” Sunny predicted.
“They are the key players of our team right now.”
The rest of
the roster includes experienced and energetic forward Yadwinder Singh, and
backups Basil Philip, Prasanna Sivakumar, and Rikin Pethani.
In the Preliminary Round of the tournament, India have been
grouped with Chinese Taipei and Philippines. Both teams are ranked higher than
us, but Sunny has reason to feel confident after India’s performances against
the two Taipei teams and Mighty Sports at the William Jones Cup. India defeated
Taipei’s “B” team and lost to the “A” team in overtime. Chinese Taipei will be
without many of their experienced stars at the FIBA Asia Challenge, although
India will have to watch out for the explosive talents of Quincy Davis. Meanwhile,
the Philippines will be sending a team without naturalised players and won’t
have too many stars from their domestic league in this national team.
The format at this tournament is a strange one. All twelve
participating teams from the four preliminary round groups will qualify for the
second round, regardless of their results, but carrying on their previous
win/loss records. They will be placed into two new groups of six teams each in
the Second Round, and the top four teams from each of these groups (a total of
eight) will then qualify for the Quarter-Final/Knockout stage.
India is likely to cross paths later in the tournament with
several more of the favourites, including two-time winners Iran, who will
feature Asian basketball legend Hamed Haddadi, and China, who are once again
sending a weaker team but will still be a handful to deal with. India will hope
to finish with a better record than teams like Kazakhstan, Thailand, and Qatar,
and if they can finish in the top four of the Second Round, they will be
looking at another top eight finish and the Quarter-Final stage.
“With this team, anything is possible,” said Sunny. “We have
a very good side. If they play their proper game, we can fight against any
team. I’m not assuring you that we can beat China again or not. But we can
definitely play really well. Last time [the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship] we finished
8th. Surely we can make it to the Quarter Finals this time, and if
we do well, we have a chance to make it to the semi-finals, too!”
If will take a miracle of epic proportions – another Wonder
of Wuhan, perhaps – for India to take such a dramatic jump in the Asian
standings. But, in contradiction to all the noise and drama back home, Team
India is heading to Tehran with a sense of quiet confidence. They are
experienced, talented, and ready. Now, it’s time to silence their doubters and
let their on-court performances speak for themselves.
