Federation Cup in Bangalore
I recently attended the the Federation Cup in Bangalore. This is a tournament where the top senior club teams in India annually play. Chawn and I enjoyed Bangalore where the mild temperatures are much like a San Diego in the U.S. It gave me one more opportunity to see many of the best players in India before we pick the group to be invited to my first training camp. It was great to meet many more coaches and administrators from the southern part of India. I was also able to spend time with Troy Justice, a long time friend and collegue. Troy has been in India the past 3 years working for the NBA. He and I actually conducted an improptu coaches clinic together on the last day of the tournament. The idea came up on a Saturday, so we made an announcement and on Sunday between 40-50 coaches attended the clinic. Since it was not planned I decided to let the coaches set the agenda with their questions. Two hours later we were still going strong but needed to come to a close because of the upcoming games. The women's team from Kerala did a great job of helping us with demonstrations.
ONGC, who comprised of many of the players from the national champion Uttarakhand team, won the Federation Cup tournament over the Services team. Tamil Nadu won the championship on the women's side. It was a great week of watching basketball and meeting many new friends. On a side note, we stayed at the historic Bangalore Club where Winston Churchhill once stayed.
We have made the final selection of those being invited to training camp and it all starts on February 18th. I have been watching them play in 3 different tounaments over the last 3 months. It is now time to get them in the gym and start molding a team. I can't wait.