24 May 2016
MIES (FIBA 3x3 U18 World Championships) - With the 2016 FIBA 3x3 U18 World Championships taking place in Astana from 1-5 June, we preview the men's and women's tournament pool by pool.
Men's Pool C
Teams
Romania (#3 seed), Indonesia (#6), Italy (#11), Qatar (#14) and Kazakhstan (#19)
Story
After winning the FIBA 3x3 World Championships in senior category, can Qatar take home the U18 trophy too? Nedim Muslic is the number one player in the world and good luck to anyone guarding the massive Seydou Ndoye (110kg).
The Kazakhstani hosts will rely on the speedy Ilyas Zhunusov and the lanky Artem Parfenov, who come back with plenty experience after a difficult 2015 edition (22nd).
Indonesia is the third Asian team in the pool and have not missed the event since 2013. The team will be both the shortest and lightest squad in the entire event.
Romania impressed last year and fell just one basket shy of the semi-finals. This is a new team, which features several players who shined in basketball youth categories including playmaker Georges Darwiche.
Italy won bronze at home in the inaugural edition of the competition but went quiet since then. The Azzurri are back with two players over 2m including the promising Nicholas Dessi.
Team Stats
Oldest/Youngest team: Italy (18)/Romania (17)
Tallest/Shortest team: Qatar (1.97m)/Indonesia (1.83m)
Heaviest/Lightest team: Qatar (91kg)/Kazakhstan (77kg)
Player Stats
Oldest/Youngest player: Artem Parfenov, Kazakhstan (18)/Bakhtiyar Namazbayev, Kazakhstan (16)
Tallest/Shortest player: Andrea Mezzanotte, Italy (2.05m)/Ilyas Zhunusov, Kazakhstan (1.75m)
Heaviest/Lightest player: Seydou Ndoye, Qatar (110kg)/ Flavio Gay, Italy (67kg)
FIBA