PANAJI
Mumbai Pirates, Bengaluru INBL, Chennai 3BL and Gurugram 3BL will lead India’s challenge at the FIBA 3x3 Goa Challenger which will take place today and tomorrow at the Youth Hostel courts in Miramar Panjim.
Teams from Austria, Serbia, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Croatia, Montenegro, Japan and Saudi Arabia will be seen in action at the two-day championship, said Father Ralin D’Souza, Vice President of Basketball Federation of India (BFI) and who also has been associated with Goa Basketball Association over a period of time in various capacities.
Mumbai Pirates, with Legendary Blaz Cresnar aka 'Birdman' and long-time Indian star Inderbir Gill, are best bet for the Indians.
They will be competing in Pool A alongside Vienna, and Sagamihara 3BL of Japan.
Pool B has Bengaluru INBL and Chennai 3BL along with Zagreb 3BL of Croatia.
Gurugram 3BL are in Pool C, along with Antwerp TOPdesk of Belgium and Podgorica Kodio of Montenegro.
Antwerp Topdesk will be aiming to end their title drought at Goa event and they are one of the favorites in the 12-team field.
Three teams from the Goa event will book tickets for the Hong Kong Masters, which is the 17th stop on this season's FIBA 3x3 World Tour.
second seeds Antwerp TOPdesk, who have not claimed a title in their last seven events stretching over two months. But the signs were better at the Al Bidda Park Challenger, where the brilliant Belgians finished runners-up.
Top seeds Vienna (AUT) have been in hot form recently capped by winning the Taipei Challenger.
Pool D is headlined by the compelling clash between Lausanne Sport LS Switzerland and Paris of France. Zagreb 3BL of Croatia loom as a dark horse. They haven't made much impact on the pro circuit yet, but experienced Dean Popovic is hoping to translate his excellent local form onto the big stage.
