Hoopdarshan Episode 46: NBA Operations' Vanja Cernivec on basketball in India, Slovenia, Spain, China, and more

It's a busy month for basketball, with the NBA Playoffs, Euroleague Final Four, launch of the NBA Academy India, and hoops fever all over the globe. For Episode 46 of Hoopdarshan, Vanja Cernivec - an NBA Operations Specialist currently for the Europe-Middle East-Africa region, joins hosts Kaushik Lakshman and Karan Madhok to talk about all types of hoops: coaching in India, China, Spain, closely observing the Euroleague, NBA playoffs, and the rise of her fellow Slovenian prodigy Luka Doncic

In addition Kaushik and Karan discuss more recent news in Indian basketball, such as catching India's top players at the NBL Draft Combine in Melbourne, India's draw for the FIBA World Cup qualifiers, FIBA's end of the "Headgear Ban", and the launch of NBA Academy India.



Hoopdarshan is the truest voice of Indian basketball, and since we're such hopeless fans of the game, it will become the voice of everything basketball related we love, from the NBA to international hoops, too. On every episode of Hoopdarshan, we will be inviting a special guest to interview or chat to about a variety of topics. With expert insight from some of the brightest and most-involved people in the world of Indian basketball, we hope to bring this conversation to a many more interested fans, players, and followers of the game.

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Doha (Qatar) win 2015 FIBA 3x3 Beijing Masters; Indian teams knocked out early

It took a dramatic buzzer-beating winner in overtime by Dominic Jones to help Doha (Qatar) defeat their Slovenian opponents and seal the winner's trophy at the 2015 FIBA 3x3 Beijing Masters, an international 3x3 basketball tournament held at the Wukesong Hi-Park in Beijing (China) on August 15-16. India also sent two teams to this championship but both of them failed to make it past the tournament's first round.

On Sunday, August 16, Doha defeated Ljubljana from Slovenia in a nail-biting finale of the two-day tournament, 22-20, on the back of Jones' buzzer-beating shot.

Earlier on Sunday, Doha defeated UAE's Novi Sad Al Wahda 21-15 to punch in their ticket for the final, while Ljubljana silenced the home crowd with a 21-14 victory over Wukesong (China).

Wukesong's Chris Reaves scored 42 points over the two days to end as the top scorer of the Beijing 3x3 Masters.

India's two 3x3 teams - Chandigarh and Bangalore - were both knocked out of the tournament on its first day, after the group stage.

Team Bangalore was the squad which represented India at the 2015 3x3 South Asian Basketball Association (SABA) Qualifiers in Colombo earlier this month. Bangalore's first game was against home team Zheng Zhou of China. Despite keeping up with their opponents most of the game, Bangalore lost the final few points to go down 21-18. They played their next game against UAE's high-ranked squad Novi Sad Al Wahda, who won the game 21-13. Bangalore ended the tournament at ninth place.

Team Chandigarh was the squad which won gold as 'Punjab Warriors' at the 2014 NBA Jam Nationals Finals in Pune last December. They lost their first game to Tokyo (Japan) 21-12 and second one to hosts Wukesong 21-13. Chandigarh ended the tournament at 11th place.

The highest scoring Indian player was Jeevanantham Pandi of Bangalore, who finished with 17 points in his two games.

20-year-old Kushmeet Atwal from Chandigarh shone in the shootout contest by topping the qualification round. In the finals he finished third behind Dusan Domovic Bulut of Novi Sad Al Wahda and Xu Liu of Beijing. The other Indian in the fray, Siddhant Shinde from Team Bangalore failed to make it past the qualification stage.

Chandigarh’s Arshdeep Dhillon and Bangalore's Jeevanantham Pandi took part in the dunk contest but neither qualified for the knockout stages. The contest was eventually won by Jordan Kilganon of Canada.

2015 FIBA 3x3 Beijing Masters Final Standings

• 1. Doha (Qatar)
  
• 2. Ljubljana (Slovenia)
  
• 3. Novi Sad Al Wahda (UAE)
  
• 4. Wukesong (China)
  
• 5. Tokyo (Japan)
  

India to take part in FIBA 3x3 Youth World Championship in Italy from Friday

Groups, schedule of games, and other challenges that will take place in the 1st FIBA 3x3 Youth World Championship (YWC) for U18 Boys and Girls in Rimini Italy from September 9-11, 2011, have been announced by FIBA. India have been invited to send teams for both the boys’ and girls’ competitions, which are amongst the 60 total teams taking part in the tournament.

India’s Boys’ side have been placed in Group A, along with Tunisia, Greece, Estonia, Ukraine, Puerto Rico, Sri Lanka, South Korea, and Slovenia. The top four teams from the group will advance to the Quarter Final stage of the tournament.

India’s Girls’ side have been placed in Group C, along with Sri Lanka, Sweden, hosts Italy, USA, and Guam. Once again, the top four teams will advance to the Quarter Final stage of the tournament.

Here is the complete list of teams in their assigned groups:

Boys

Group A: Tunisia, India, Greece, Estonia, Ukraine, Puerto Rico, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Slovenia
Group B: Austria, Jordan, Serbia, Singapore, Syria, Spain, Qatar, Italy, Egypt
Group C: England, Japan, Canada, Romania, New Zealand, Turkey, Nepal, Latvia, Germany
Group D: Netherlands, Czech Republic, USA, South Africa, Bulgaria, Croatia, Guam, Russia, Denmark

Girls

Group A: Greece, Tunisia, Russia, Australia, Canada, England
Group B: Jordan, Angola, Czech Republic, Turkey, Spain, Netherlands
Group C: Sri Lanka, India, Sweden, Italy, USA, Guam
Group D: Germany, Austria, Japan, Ukraine, China, Syria

Here is India’s schedule of group games:

Boys

Sep 9, 12:00 PM: India vs. South Korea

Sep 9, 1:40 PM: India vs. Puerto Rico

Sep 9, 3:00 PM: India vs. Estonia

Sep 9, 5:40 PM: India vs. Slovenia

Sep 9, 6:20 PM: India vs. Sri Lanka

Sep 10, 12:00 PM: India vs. Ukraine

Sep 10, 1:20 PM: India vs. Greece

Sep 10, 3:30 PM: India vs. Tunisia

Girls

Sep 9, 1:00 PM: India vs. USA

Sep 9, 2:20 PM: India vs. Italy

Sep 9, 3:40 PM: India vs. Sweden

Sep 9, 5:00 PM: India vs. Guam

Sep 10, 1:00 PM: India vs. Sri Lanka

The knockout/classification matches will begin on the evening of Saturday, September 10th. Finals will be held after 6 PM on Sunday, September 11th.

FIBA 3x3 Rules: In this half-court basketball competition, each team will have four players – three starters plus one substitute. Each game will be 10 minutes long, with two halves of five minutes each. A one-minute overtime is held if the score is tied at the end of regulation. The shot-clock is 12 seconds, and the scoring limit is 21 points (that is, the first team to 21 wins). No time-outs are allowed: substitutions are to be made in dead-ball situations.

Outside of the 3x3 tournament, there will be many other tournaments taking place for the players to participate in, including a Free Throw Contest, Shootout Contest, Skills Challenge, and a Dunk Contest.

Here are India U18 basketball teams for the 1st FIBA 3x3 World Championship:

Boys

Kirti Goswami (Madhya Pradesh)

Love Neet Singh (Punjab)

Ajay Pratap Singh (Chhattisgarh)

Sivabalan Gnanasekaran (Tamil Nadu)

Coach: Kulwinder Singh Gill

Girls

Jeena PS (Kerala)

Aishwarya Natarajan (Tamil Nadu)

Amrutha Bhuskute (Maharashtra)

Shireen Limaye (Maharashtra)

Coach: Pete Gaudet

Turkey FIBA World Championship experiences motivates Indian youngsters

"My ambition is to there, on that basketball court, representing India in the basketball world championships!"

14-year-old Poojamal from the town of Kottayam in Kerala got to realise an amazing dream last week - she was part of the lucky few basketball fans that attended several games of the ongoing FIBA Basketball World Championships in Istanbul, Turkey, make dozens of new friends, and be trained by some of the best coaches in the world.

Two Indian sub-junior players, Poojamal, and Yogesh Kanderiya from Rajasthan, had been selected by BFI to be India's official representatives in FIBA's "Children of the World" camp in Istanbul, set to be held around the World Championships. The two youngsters were accompanied by coach P. Deepa Sundari from Tamil Nadu for this experience from August 24-31.

A highlight of this trip was their chance to watch six World Championship games, including three games played by the exciting USA team - USA vs Croatia, USA vs. Slovenia, and USA vs. Brazil. "Just watching these games made me want to be there, playing for the Indian team, and playing against the world's best at this stage," said Kanderiya.

Kanderiya was given further encouragement for his own stellar play when he was chosen as the best Boy player at the Children of the World camp. Around 400 teen boys and girls from 200 different FIBA countries were invited for this camp to improve their basketball skills and participate in 3-on-3 basketball games under the watchful eyes of expert coaches from around the world.

Although only 24 of the best teams in the world participate, FIBA has designed the "Children of the World" project aiming to provide a possibility for official representation of all of the FIBA member countries through "young ambassadors" - young basketball players and coaches who will come together in a global basketball camp. One boy, one girl, (both between the ages of 13-14) and one young coach were sent to Istanbul from each of the FIBA-member countries and were hosted by the Turkish Basketball Federation.

"It was a very good experience," Kanderiya added, "We got the chance to meet other kids from all over the world - from countries like Gabon, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Lithuania, and Bhutan."

"We did a tour of Istanbul as well - it is a beautiful city - we visited several mosques and went shopping, too."

The youngsters did their share of cheerleading for India, too, taking part in the colourful opening ceremony of the Championships and waving the Indian flag high at every occasion!

"We were taught some great drills and basketball fundamentals by the coaches," added Poojamal, "We did passing, dribbling, lay-ups, and ball-handling exercises, and also played 3-on-3 half-court games."

Both the youngsters came out impressed by the Championship games, stating the USA-Brazil thriller, where USA won 70-68 on a last second miss, as the best game of the lot. Poojamal said that her favourite player was Kevin Durant, whereas Kanderiya was a fan of Russell Westbrook - both American players who play for the NBA team Oklahama City Thunder.

The "Children of the World" project was designed to educate, engage, and influence young ambassadors to be aware of and sensitive towards a range of global issues and develop towards playing an active role in their respective countries as "citizens of the world" - judging by the experiences and exposure that these two Indian youngsters received over the past week, it is fair to say that they are not only on the path to become accomplished basketball players but also took a few steps forward as globally aware citizens.