Alexander Bucan watches the most exhilarating action on Indian basketball courts with a face so stoic, you wonder if he’s in India on the spiritual beat – to meditate. But perhaps India, far removed from basketball’s epicenter, even in Asia, needs some dispassionate viewing, to gauge the enormity of the tall-order of raising standards here.
Kickstarting preparations for the Asian Basketball Championship in August at Tianjin, China, Bucan will start working with the 25 probables of the India camp after watching his second national championships at Surat. Now, the Serb who is currently into his second year as coach, speaks up…or booms down from 6’4” above.
What makes India a challenge?
Changing the Indian style of play from freelance to set-play was the toughest part of my job, since it is so difficult to change players’ habits. There is no habit for set-defense here, but I insisted on the team-game going in offense and defense, and never surrendered on that point. The results are slowly showing. There is so much space for development of basketball and we’ve not had big results till now.
What stops Indian basketball from rising above its present standards?
The system here is different from professional leagues elsewhere. Most players would struggle for a decent pair of sneakers throughout 365 days. It’s still difficult in India to get them to focus on the game solely. They have day jobs to keep. For some more time at least, we’re going to be almost amateurs competing against professionals at the international level.
Tactically, what are the desired changes amongst India’s ball players?
One major area for improvement in India is the physical style of play, as Indian basketball lacks quality in contact-play. A contact game will give them the desired confidence.
What were the main gains from the Surat Nationals?
I’ve seen a lot of options in the point guard position where earlier we had only Sambhaji Kadam. There’s Arjun from Uttarakhand, and Punjab’s Talwinderjit Singh who have impressed playing at the 5 [center]. And competition always helps. It’s good to see how juniors like Vishesh (Bhrugavanshi) and Arjun have made the difficult transition from junior to senior level seem so easy.
In terms of improvement, Vishesh tops the list – he’s a real find.
Also good to see was how boys from Chhattisgarh are playing the big game – that’s one centre that has developed fast.
How do we reconcile the NBA that’s watched on TV with our players are expected to play?
There’s the NBA system what we see on TV, and the FIBA style that we must follow, because we’ll be competing at FIBA events with those rules. The two are not very similar. Players can pick moves from the NBA, but we can’t be guided entirely by that. In the last 10 years, of all countries in Asia that have risen in the rankings, mostly Gulf countries, Jordan and Syria have European coaches, strictly following the FIBA system.
Can Indians continue playing with their modest average-height squads?
Not really. Of the 5 positions, height is important – let’s say all-important – to 4 of those in both high-post and low-post. We have to get taller players, except for the 1 [point guard] position where vertical advantage is not required.
January 2009, Mumbai, India
Interview conducted by Shivani Naik
Read more about Bucan and the Railways here
