CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu men’s 3x3 basketball team gave a good account of themselves by winning the final of the 3x3 National Basketball Championship held at the Nehru Indoor Stadium on Sunday. The men’s final was a closely contested affair which eventually Tamil Nadu won by holding on to their nerves.
Tamil Nadu scored the opening points and at the first timeout, they led against Punjab with a score of 9-2. Thereafter it was a close battle with the hosts winning 17-16 by a whisker. With this win, Tamil Nadu also qualified for the FIBA 3x3 Challengers that will be played later this year in Goa.
No wonder then that Tamil Nadu coach S Prasanna Venkatesh is thrilled about his boys’ performance.
The former India player insists that good preparation and players’ ability to improvise during the course of play on a given day helped the team emerge triumphant. The 3X3 basketball is like T20 in cricket where speed, power and agility are the key to a player’s success.
“I’m pleased with the team’s win. It was a very good experience playing on home turf. I attribute the reason for our win to all four players — Aravind Annadurai, Aravind Muthu, Lokeshwaran and Prashanth Rawat. All four played really well,” said Prasanna.
Basketball facilities are good in Chennai as it has a chequered history. So with the existing facilities, the team trained hard. “The boys worked hard in practice sessions in preparation for the tournament. The fact that we managed to train and play practice matches against the Asian Games 3x3 India team helped the players a lot. We trained regularly at the Nehru indoor stadium,” shared Prasanna.
For 3x3 basketball, one needs to have a different mindset and the inherent ability to adapt and improvise. It is almost completely different from the traditional game where one has the time and resources to make a comeback during the course of play. “3x3 is totally different from 5 on 5 basketball. 3X3 is more of a power game and players generally find it a little bit difficult to adapt. But our boys are learning and adapting to 3x3,” informed Prasanna.
“Having said that, our boys’ understanding of 3x3 is good. Aravind Annadurai did well in ‘rebound’ and being a senior player, he had good control over the game. Muthu was good at offence, Lokeshwaren and Prashanth were excellent in defense. In 3x3, all teams are equal, one cannot take any game easily. We have to be on our toes and there is no chance and time for a comeback,” he added.
Tamil Nadu Basketball Association is led by Aadhav Arjuna, who is also the president of the Basketball Federation of India, and has been providing good infrastructure and training facilities for the players and coaches too in Tamil Nadu.
“This is my first assignment for Tamil Nadu. Last month, I was assisting the Indian 3x3 team and have coached Indian teams in groups and a lot of other International tournaments. So, coaching Tamil Nadu boys in a new format was not a problem. Moreover, the Tamil Nadu Basketball Association provides all facilities for players to improve their game. Arjuna Anna is doing a lot for basketball in order to see that as a nation we play good basketball,” said Prasanna.