Mongolia (Men), Australia (Women) win 2017 FIBA 3x3 Asia Cup; India women finish 4th, Men 9th

Basketball's new, short version took another successful step towards its exponential growth this week. In Mongolia, the top 3x3 basketball teams from Asia and Oceania took part in the 2nd FIBA 3x3 Asia Cup in Ulaanbaatar from October 27-29. A total of 27 men and women's teams participated in this quickfire tournament, including teams from India. By the end of Sunday, hosts Mongolia took home the Men's gold in front of their home fans, while Australian women finished atop their division.

In the tournament's previous iteration in Qatar, India's women won the gold medal. This time around, however, they were ousted in the semi-final stage and had to settle for fourth place. India's men's team failed to make it out of the group stage and finished at ninth.

Mongolia met New Zealand in the Men's final and pulled away in the final minutes for a 19-14, thanks to the play-making of MVP Dulguun Enkhbat and the scoring of Tsenguunbayar Gotov.

Australia, in their debut in this tournament, were led by MVP Isabell Bourne en route to a 21-15 victory in the women's final.

China defeated India's women 21-16 to secure third place. Australia won third-place in the men's division, defeating Kazakhstan 21-18.

India's women, a team that featured Shireen Limaye, Jeena Scaria, Raspreet Sidhu, and Grima Merlin Varghese came into the tournament with aspirations to defend their gold medal from Qatar. In the group stage's Pool D, India beat Kyrgyzstan in their first game 20-12, but lost to New Zealand in nail-biter 16-15. India defeated Mongolia in the Quarter-Final 16-14, but their entry to the finale was blocked by Malaysia who defeated them 19-13. India's final game was a third-place matchup against China, which they lost 21-16 and finished fourth.

India's men's team featured Ravi Bhardwaj, Anil Kumar Gowda, Gurvinder Singh Gill, and Jeevanantham Pandi. They had to begin the tournament in the qualifying round. After losing to Chinese Taipei 21-15 in the first game, they defeated Lebanon 21-19 to sneak into the group stage. Here, they lost both of their matchups, first to China 22-15 and then to Kyrgyzstan 21-19, and their hopes of making the knockout rounds were dashed. India finished at 9th place.

India's Women had two scorers in the tournament's top ten, Raspreet Sidhu and Shireen Limaye.

Men's Team of the Tournament: Dulguun Enkhbat (MVP - Mongolia), Alonzo Burton (New Zealand), Lucas Barker (Australia).

Women's Team of the Tournament: Isabella Bourne (MVP - Australia), Fook Ye Yap (Malaysia), Jinxian Wang (China).

Shoot-Out Contest winner: Fook Ye Yap (Malaysia).

Final Standings

Men

• 1. Mongolia
• 2. New Zealand
• 3. Australia
• 4. Kazakhstan
• 5. China

Women

• 1. Australia
• 2. Malaysia
• 3. China
• 4. India
• 5. Mongolia

India Men and Women gear up for 2017 FIBA 3x3 Asia Cup in Mongolia: Rosters and Preview

India has taken on quicker than most to basketball's newest international format, the 3x3 version of the game. Perhaps its because, while many other countries have saved their top talents for the game's full (5x5) game, India has often sent the best available players to all versions of the game. Without a domestic basketball league, our top players are often ready and eager to play in as many competitions as possible. And it was in this spirit that India's women's senior team famously took home the gold in FIBA's first-ever Asian 3x3 basketball championship, held in Doha, Qatar, in 2013.

Four years later, Indian Women and Men will return to the senior 3x3 Asian stage with expectations to keep shining while the rest of the world has gotten more serious about this format.

The 3x3 FIBA Asia Cup 2017 is set to be held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from October 27-29. 15 Men's and 12 Women's teams will be taking part in the three-day quick-fire championship.

In the tournament's previous iteration in Doha, the home squad Qatar took the Men's gold with a win in the final against Saudi Arabia. The Women's title was won by India against this year's hosts Mongolia in the final. Playing in a tougher fray, India's men were knocked out in the Quarter-Final stage in 2013.

This year, team's from Oceania will also be taking part in the Asian competition system. Based on recent 3x3 points accumulation rankings, India's outlook is not looking good: we are ranked bottom of all teams in both the Men's and Women's rankings. Japan, New Zealand, and Kazakhstan have been the most favoured Men's squads in the lead up to this tournament; the Women's teams to watch will be Kazakhstan, China, and Turkmenistan.



India's Women are drawn in Group D of the tournament with Kyrgyzstan and New Zealand. India's Men's team will have to first get out of the Qualifying Draw's second group against Chinese Taipei and Lebanon, before being pooled into one of the four Men's groups.

FIBA 3x3 Asia Cup Pools

Men

• Pool A: Japan, Bahrain, Mongolia.
• Pool B: New Zealand, Qatar, QD1 Winner.
• Pool C: Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, QD2 Winner.
• Pool D: China, Kyrgyzstan, QD Best 2nd.
• Qualifying Draw 1: Turkmenistan, Australia, Malaysia.
• Pool D: Chinese Taipei, Lebanon, India.

Women

• Pool A: Kazakhstan, Chinese Taipei, Australia.
• Pool B: China, Sri Lanka, Mongolia.
• Pool C: Turkmenistan, Malaysia, Qatar.
• Pool D: Kyrgyzstan, New Zealand, India.

India's rosters for FIBA 3x3 Asia Cup

• Men: Ravi Bhardwaj, Anil Kumar Gowda, Gurvinder Singh Gill, Jeevanantham Pandi.
• Women: Shireen Limaye, Jeena Scaria, Raspreet Sidhu, Grima Merlin Varghese.

All four members of India's women's squad were in the team that helped the national squad complete a perfect qualifying campaign at the FIBA Asia Women's Cup in Bengaluru earlier this year. This team has a good combination of current stardom (Scaria, Limaye), experience (Sidhu), and youth (Varghese) and could upset some of the higher-ranked teams in their group. The men's team doesn't feature any of India's most-popular players who are all vying for their trades in leagues abroad, but has a good second string of talent that has emerged in the country over the past few years.

The odds are, unfortunately, stacked against India in both the sections. Our women will find it difficult to make it out of the group to the final rounds, and the men's team might struggle even finishing top or second in their qualifying draw. But 3x3 is an unpredictable game, and hopefully, some of the momentum of the past can help India beat the odds and bring home some silverware.

China win U18 FIBA Asia Championship in thrilling fashion; India finish 10th

With a thrilling comeback, China win their 10th gold at the U18 FIBA Asia Basketball Championship at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on August 26th, beating Korea 93-91 in the Final.

Meanwhile, India - led by the brilliant Palpreet Singh Brar - won two of their eight games, but their performance was good enough to warrant them a 10th place finish (out of 16) at the tournament, their best finish since 2004.

Here is a detailed recap of the tournament, with focus on India's performances.

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India's U18 Boys’ head to 22nd U18 FIBA Asia Championship in Mongolia

India’s U18 Boys’ squad has been announced for the 22nd U18 FIBA Asia Championship, which will be held in Mongolia’s capital city Ulaanbaatar from August 17-26, 2012. After spending time in camp in New Delhi for the past month, the 12-man roster to represent India at this event was released by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) on Sunday. Here is an India-centric preview of the upcoming tournament!

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India wins Mid Zone qualifiers to secure a spot at the U18 FIBA Asia Championship

Once again, India faced no challenge from the basketball forces of neighbouring South Asian nations as they strolled through the Mid Zone Qualifiers this past weekend in New Delhi (Feb 24-26 2012) and secured a spot for themselves in the U18 FIBA Asia Championship, set to be held in Mongolia in August.

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India to play in Mid-Zone FIBA Asia U18 Championship Qualifiers in New Delhi

India’s U18 Men’s Basketball team will play in a Mid-Zone Qualifying Tournament against Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka in New Delhi from February 24-26, 2012. The team that wins this tournament will qualify for the 22nd FIBA Asia U18 Championship, which will be held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from August 17-26.

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FIBA Asia releases 2012 Calender

From Lebanon to Malaysia, and from Mongolia to Japan, high-level basketball will travel all across the massive continent of Asia this year: FIBA Asia has released the complete Calender of dates and venues of its events in 2012, highlighted by the 4th FIBA Asia Cup in Tokyo this September.

The calendar will tip off with the 23rd FIBA Asia Champions Cup, FIBA Asia’s premier event for club teams, which will be hosted by Lebanon at Beirut from June 2–10th, 2012. The top club teams from the top basketball nations in the continent take part: last year's competition was won by Al-Riyadi Beirut in Pasig, Philippines.

In August, the best U18 players in Asia will compete in the 22nd FIBA Asia U18 Championship, which will be held in the Mongolian capital of UIaanbaatar from Aug 17-26. This is the first time that a FIBA Asia event will be held in Mongolia! Future stars of Asia will be showcased here: China won this championship with a dominating performance in Yemen two years ago, and India, who featured the likes of Arjun Singh and Rakesh Kumar Yadav, finished 13th despite a good showing. After India's good performance at last year's U16 Boys' Championship, we will be hoping that some of the confident young talent now matures to help the squad make a mark in Mongolia this year.

Known previously as the FIBA Asia Stankovic Cup, the 4th FIBA Asia Cup, which features the the 10 top senior National Teams in Asia, will be held in Tokyo, Japan, from September 14-22. The champions from the 4th FIBA Asia Cup will earn a direct qualification to the 27th FIBA Asia Championship in 2013. The previous edition of this cup was held in Lebanon and won by the hosts.

The best under-18 women players will compete at Batu Pahat in Malaysia, at the 21st FIBA Asia U18 Championship for Women, which is the last FIBA Asia event of the year, from September 29th - 6th October. This is the qualifying event for the 2013 FIBA World U19 Championship for Women. The 20th edition of this tournament was held in Thailand in 2010 and won by China. India will be competing in this championship, showcasing the up-and-comers in the women's section from around the country.

Here is the complete 2012 FIBA Asia Calender:

23rd FIBA Asia Champions Cup - June 2-10 - Beirut, Lebanon

22nd FIBA Asia U18 Championship - August 17-26 - Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

4th FIBA Asia Cup - September 14-22 - Tokyo, Japan

21st FIBA Asia U18 Championship for Women - September 29-October 6 - Batu Pahat, Malaysia.