Indian basketball prospect Khushi Dongre signed to ASA College-Miami of the NJCAA

Another day, another bit of great news considering an Indian hoopers looking abroad as a student-athlete.

The latest to join the list is Khushi Dongre, a 5-foot-10 combo guard originally from Aurangabad in Maharashtra, who has been signed to play for the ASA College-Miami of the NJCAA (junior NCAA) Division 1. In recent years, the 18-year-old Dongre has played for India at the junior international stage and starred at the NBA Academy India's women's programme.

"Over the last couple of months of getting to know Khushi, she is always happy and so grateful for the opportunity to come here and play basketball in the USA," said Kevin Johnson, the head coach of ASA College-Miami Silverstorm team. "The meaning of her name means happiness and she definitely exemplifies happiness in her personality."

Dongre was most recently a part of India's U18 3x3 team that took part in the FIBA U18 Asia 3x3 Championship in Malaysia. Her contributions helped India make an impressive leap in the tournament to finish at 7th place. In the past, Dongre has played for Team India in the FIBA U16 Asia Women's Championship, where the team won Division B in Bengaluru. She participated in the NBA Academy India's women's programme in 2018 and 2019.

"It was such a blessing to be able to bring in a player from the NBA Academies Women's Program because we have the same vision in regards to helping our youth through the game of basketball," Johnson said. "We are so excited to have Khushi on our team and look forward to her bringing a high game IQ, shooting ability and great teamwork to our program."

Dongre will join the list of several other Indian women to make the leap to college basketball in North America, including Kavita Akula, Sanjana Ramesh, Vaishnavi Yadav, and Srishti Suren. According to a report by NBA India, she intends to major in Economics and Sports Management.

BFI to conduct national training camp for India's U16 boys & girls

India's best under-16 (youth-level) boys and girls basketball players will be in national training camps from next week, in preparation for their respective FIBA Asia Basketball Championships. The Basketball Federation of India (BFI) has listed 16 probables for the boys' squad and 25 for the girls' team to report to their respective camps from all across the nation. The boys' camp will be held at the SAI courts in NSWC, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, while the girls' camp will be held at STC Aurangabad in Maharashtra. Both camps are scheduled from August 19 - September 15 this year.

India's U16 boys are scheduled to participate in the 3rd FIBA Asia U16 Championship in Tehran (Iran) from September 25 - October 4. Upon completion of their training camp in Gandhinagar, the final 12-man roster will travel to Dongguan (China) for an exposure trip against various Chinese clubs, before heading to Iran. India qualified for the championship in Tehran after winning the SABA Qualifiers against South Asian rivals in Dhaka, Bangladesh, a month ago.

The 3rd FIBA Asia U16 Championship for Women is set to be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from November 17-24, 2011. India qualified for this championship after finishing fifth at the previous edition of the U16 Women's ABC in Jinan (2011), and thus remaining in the competition's Level I.

India's foreign head coaches Scott Flemming & Francisco Garcia will be overlooking the boys' and girls' squads respectively, while Tritesh Guha (Boys) and TD Biju (Girls) have also been named coaches for the teams.

India's Boys U16 Probables

- Mahipal Singh (Rajasthan)
- Akhilesh Kumar (Rajasthan)
- Yogesh Kaneriya (Rajasthan)
- Prabhnoor Singh (Punjab)
- Rahul Memla (Punjab)
- Jaipal Singh (Punjab)
- Bitto (Delhi)
- Ashish Briggs (Madhya Pradesh)
- Vishal Kumar Gupta (Delhi)
- Sunil (Delhi)
- M. David Boon (Andhra Pradesh)
- Mithun Das (Chhattisgarh)
- Dhimant Sahi (Tamil Nadu)
- Ashutosh Kumar Singh (Uttar Pradesh)
- Erash Hooda (Karnataka)
- Arjun Pandit (Delhi)

International Coach: Scott Flemming
Coach: Tritesh Guha
Assistant Coach: RS Gaur
Strength and Conditioning Coach Zak Penwell

India's Girls U16 Probables

- Vandana Arya (Chhattisgarh)
- Riya Verma (Chhattisgarh)
- P. Divya (Chhattisgarh)
- Divyangna Singh (Delhi)
- Tannu Hooda (Haryana)
- Namrata Hooda (Haryana)
- Bhandanya HM (Karnataka)
- Lopamudra Thimmayam K (Karnataka)
- Sandhya CR (Karnataka)
- India Nelson (Kerala)
- Mayukha KT (Kerala)
- Nimmy Mathew (Kerala)
- Anitha PV (Kerala)
- Sakshi Pandey (Madhya Pradesh)
- Shreya Salian (Maharashtra)
- Sakshi Arora (Maharashtra)
- Shreya Joshi (Maharashtra)
- Mugda Amroolkar (Maharashtra)
- Gangandeep Kaur (Punjab)
- V Srividhya (Tamil Nadu)
- MG Shinu (Tamil Nadu)
- K Prithi (Tamil Nadu)
- Urvashi Malik (Odhisa)
- Pallavi Kumari (West Bengal)
- Vimmy Varkey (Kerala)

International Coach: Francisco Garcia
Coach: TD Biju
Assistant Coach: Abay Chawan
Strength and Conditioning Coach: Zak Penwell