Team NMI guards against South Korea during a FIBA 3×3 Asia Cup 2024 game in Singapore on March 27, 2024.
THE NMI’s Coby Santos and Mikki Kautz have now lived one of their dreams — to play in the FIBA 3×3 Asia Cup.
This year’s tournament was held from March 27 to 31 in Singapore. The NMI Men’s and Women’s teams made their debut in the regional event, but came up short, each losing all their three games.
In their third and final game, the NMI men finally found their rhythm as a team, but were outlasted by Indonesia, which won 10-16.
The NMI men earlier lost to South Korea, 8-21 and Sri Lanka, 13-21.
Still, the NMI’s Coby Santos was more than happy to represent the islands in playing a game he loves.
“It’s an honor to represent the NMI in the 3×3 tournament,” he said. “Can’t put it into words on how it feels to be here playing against other counties. All I know for sure is I love this level of basketball and I hope we’ll get another shot at this. This is only the start of NMI 3×3 basketball.”
Teammates Preston Basa, Douglas Schmidt and Jack Lizama represented the NMI in the 2017 Pacific Mini Games, which was held in Vanuatu, but they had never faced such high-level competition as they did at the Asian Cup in Singapore.
“The level of competition is entirely different from what we’re used to,” Santos said. “Physicality and height differential were major factors for the opposing teams. It’s not an excuse, I genuinely believe we had a chance to win against anyone in our pool,” he added.
He believes that his team’s overall performance was remarkable
“We gave it our all and had to adjust as the games went on,” Santos said. “We were not discouraged in any way or even disappointed in ourselves. We know we have what it takes to win games and if we ever get a chance to come back out here, we will definitely put in work to get to this level of basketball.”
One of the lessons that the NMI men learned is that “hard work is important when competing at this level and there is always great talent at this level of basketball,” Santos said.
He added, “To the future NMI athletes that envision themselves in this tournament: if you really want to be a pro at the sport you love, take everything that you do seriously. Do not take anything for granted. The only thing that’ll stop you from being great is yourself. What you do with your life is not up to anyone else — you always give it your all when it comes to achieving your goals.”
Mixed feelings
The NMI Women’s team, for their part, lost to India, 1-21; to Hong Kong, 2-21; and to Indonesia, 2-22.
“It’s a mixed bag of feelings,
NMI team member Mikki Kautz said. “On the one hand, I’m excited to see players I’ve watched and studied, even the refs. On the other hand, it’s a little intimidating seeing the other players’ actual size and physique. There are countries that have rotated their players since last year to be more competitive and changed their playing style to suit 3×3.”
The level of competition at the Asian Cup was incredible, Kautz said. “You can tell that these teams eat, sleep and breathe 3×3. Not just basketball, but 3×3.” Moreover, a lot of them play professionally, she added.
Kautz tweaked her ankle in the first game and suffered a sprain during the second, but still had to play through.
“As the newest team to debut in the FIBA 3×3 Asia Cup stage, we found it difficult applying how we play back home to our opponents here,” Kautz said. “Beyond their size and speed, the physicality of the game is not something we were familiar with. But our goal for this trip was to gain experience and learn to change the play in the NMI,” she added.
Kautz said when competing against countries or jurisdictions with bigger populations and larger pools of players to recruit from, “you have to keep your head high and keep going.”
“Understand what makes you competitive and work from there,” she added. “Study the teams/players you’re most similar to and understand what makes them successful. Not a lot of opportunities come our way but the best we can do is take it in and pass on what we’ve learned to the next player.”
This may be the NMI’s first appearance in a FIBA 3×3 tournament, but it will not be the last.
