FIBA has announced the schedules for the 2021 FIBA 3×3 Olympic Qualifying Tournaments that will be held in Graz, Austria, and the USA Men’s and Women’s 3×3 National Teams will kick off play on May 27 in the USA’s final attempt to qualify USA Basketball for the inaugural Tokyo Olympic Games 3×3 competition.
The USA women, who are in preliminary round Pool A, will take the court first and on May 27 will face Indonesia at 5:15 a.m. (all times listed are Eastern Daylight Time) and France at 7:20 a.m. On May 29, the U.S. women will close out pool play against Germany at 7:20 a.m. and versus Uruguay at 9:25 a.m.
The USA men are in preliminary round Pool B and on May 27 will play Lithuania at 8:10 a.m. and South Korea at 9:50 a.m. On May 29, the U.S. men will play two final pool play games, including against Kazakhstan at 8:10 a.m. and Belgium at 9:50 a.m.
For both the men’s and women’s tournament, the top two finishing teams from each preliminary round pool will advance to the quarterfinals on May 30, and the quarterfinal winners will advance to the semifinals. The three Olympic berths for each gender will go to the two semifinal winning teams and the third-place finisher.
The USA women’s team includes 6-foot-5 Stefanie Dolson (Chicago Sky/Connecticut/Port Jervis, N.Y.); 6-foot Allisha Gray (Dallas Wings/South Carolina/Sandersville, Ga.); 5-foot-8 Kelsey Plum (Las Vegas Aces/Washington/Poway, Calif.) and 6-foot-3 Katie Lou Samuelson (Seattle Storm/Connecticut/Huntington Beach, Calif.).
Playing in Pool B at the women’s tournament will be Australia, Iran, Japan, Ukraine and Thailand; Pool C includes Belarus, Estonia, Hungary, Netherlands and Sri Lanka; and Pool D features Austria, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Taiwan.
The USA 3×3 National Team includes: 6-foot-6 Canyon Barry (Iowa Wolves/Florida/Colorado Springs, Colo.), 6-foot-8 Robbie Hummel (Purdue/Valparaiso, Ind.), 5-foot-9 Dominique Jones (Fort Hays State/Harlem, N.Y.) and 6-foot-8 Kareem Maddox (Princeton/Los Angeles, Calif.).
The field for the men’s tournament is rounded out by Pool A teams Brazil, Czech Republic, Mongolia, Poland and Turkey; Pool C features Dominican Republic, France, Philippines, Qatar and Slovenia; and Pool D includes Austria, Canada, Croatia, Latvia and Netherlands.
3×3 basketball is played with a 12-second shot clock on a half court. Baskets inside the arc and free throws are worth one point, and baskets made from outside the arc are worth two points. The winner is the first team to score 21 points, or the leading team at the end of the 10-minute game clock.
For more information on USA Basketball fans are encouraged to click on the link seen here:
The National Governing Body for Men’s and Women’s Basketball in the United States (usab.com)