Asian Games 2023: India's challenge in 3x3 Basketball ends after both men's, women's team eliminated

Published at :October 3, 2023 at 3:22 PM

Modified at :February 23, 2024 at 8:07 PM

Both the teams created major upsets in the continental event.

The 3×3 Basketball in India has been on the rise for the past few years, with more 3×3 tournaments happening than 5×5. The latest was the 3×3 Senior Nationals Championship in Chennai, which happened alongside the Asian Games 2023 but before the basketball events started.

While I tried to watch a few matches and see if there were any budding talents, catching up on all the games was hard. But it looked like a really good tournament organised by the Basketball Federation of India. It was also a good build-up to the 3×3 Asian Games, starting just after the Senior Nationals.

For tournaments like these, such competitions happen earlier for selection and then preparing the players. But in India’s case, it was not the same, with two factions tussling for their command over the federation this process was replaced by a different method.

State Associations were asked to send five players from their state for trials after which the team would be made. Surely this was not the best way to conduct a selection for a huge event like this but then you also have a team ready and training together for two months you expect them to work like a well-oiled machine.

U23 Men’s

The Cagers had a solid team on paper; you have a player who was the first-ever Indian to win any NBA Trophy, two regulars in the Senior, and a promising prospect who just came from the U18 World Cup. What else do you need to contend for a medal? This seemed like a perfect recipe for success, even though we are 58th-ranked.

Even the basketball gods were in our favour; we were on a 2-1 run in the pool stage and already had upset Malaysia, the 41st-ranked team in the U23 3×3 rankings and 50th overall men’s. It was a close game against China, already a win in a back-and-forth contest with the hosts.

This was a significant missed opportunity for us to shine on the big stage, thanks to lousy decision-making. The first glance at the stats tells Sahaij Pratap Singh Sekhon and Princepal Singh were the key to India’s run in this tournament. Both had an average P-Val (player value) of 8.23 and 8.13, respectively.

Sahaij Pratap Singh was a crucial player for the team. He scored double-digit twice in four games, and his performance against Macao and Malaysia was outstanding. Sekhon had some great moments in our game against Iran, where Princepal Singh Stole the show. He was usually at the receiving end of key assists.

Princepal Singh turned up when it was needed, and his slam dunk against Iran got me to jump out of my chair. As Lokendra said in our interaction, Princepal’s height advantage will play a major role in the run, and it did with his post-game was full-on display. He was the only player in the team to have shooting percentages more than or equal to 50%. In the game against Iran, Singh was constantly guarding the perimeter and not under the basket. We did have Pranav Prince for his “out of nowhere” blocks and interceptions, but having Princepal under the basket could’ve stopped a lot of drives.

Pranav Prince’s performance was really inconsistent, just like his outing at the Pre-Olympic qualifiers. He did show glimpses of why he was on this team. He did turn up during our game against China, scoring 6 points, the highest on the team. Looking at his shooting percentages, his inconsistencies do show up here. He played a huge role in terms of rebounding and shot-blocking. One thing that highlighted how much he needs to work on his clutch game is the last minute against Iran.

Lokendra Singh was usually deployed as a support for the team and did not have enough time to make a sizeable impact, which can be seen in the numbers. He did give out some key assists and was active in rebounding the ball.

U23 Women’s

Not much is known about the women’s team in general, and this team is a relatively new side. It’s been a long time since we have seen the women’s team play in any of the tournaments, and this was an opportunity for them to show how good they are.

The team consisted of a player who holds probably the record for most points scored in a game: Vaishnavi Yadav, an NBA Academy Women’s program alumni Siya Deodhar and Yashneet Kaur, Women’s 2021 Asia Cup player Anumaria Chenganamattathil.

In four games played, they had a record of 1-3. The reason behind this, according to the numbers, was Vaishnavi seemed like the only scorer for the team, averaging 7.8 points per game and an average P-Val of 9.1. This can also be because of how the team wants to operate. The sets might be only executed to get Yadav to get as many buckets as possible because of her scoring prowess.

For other players, they can be termed as support players according to the stats. All of them had different ways of creating an impact on the game. Anumaria is, from whatever I could see from the Malaysian game on the elbow, facilitating hand-offs, usually to Yadav and then getting under the basket for rebounds. Siya played more of a secondary scorer, driving in during isolations or dishing out assists. Yashneet Kaur also had looked like a big deployed for hand-offs and securing rebounds.

A lot of scoring was skewed towards Yadav, who has a superb basketball IQ and can steal the ball whenever she wants. Unfortunately, the stats don’t record steals, but from the eye test, you can see the players spacing out as much as they can on offense and assisting Yadav. In terms of defence as well, Yadav was seen cutting out the passing lanes and getting steals.

Final Thoughts

Both the teams played well. This outing showed that there is still room for growth for the players, and if we improve, we can be a force to be reckoned with. All hopes are now with the 5×5 Women’s team, who are yet to face their toughest opponent in China. It is for sure we are progressing to the next round, but if we win this, it will be a statement win.

Asian Games 2023: India's challenge in 3x3 Basketball ends after both men's, women's team eliminated

Both the teams created major upsets in the continental event.

U23 Men’s

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U23 Women’s

Final Thoughts