Four friends with a love of basketball, all studying at Southern Cross University, will represent Australia at an international university 3-on-3 basketball event in China next month.
Team SCU is part-state league experience and part-passion: 24-year-old James Whitby, who’s studying to be a primary education teacher, plays in the Queensland Basketball League (QBL) with the Gold Coast Rollers, while sport and exercise science student Tim Jeffery, 19, plays for the Lismore Storm in the NSW league.
Tim Rice, 20, (from Sydney) and 23-year-old Brodie Calvert (Coffs Harbour) both relocated to Lismore to study sport and exercise science.
Whitby, Jeffery, Rice and Calvert competed in the inaugural UniBattle event earlier this year, beating the University of Western Sydney (quarter final), Monash University (semifinal) and narrowly getting the better of the undefeated Griffith University in the grand final (13-12) to book their flight to Xiamen to play in the official Federation of International Sporting Universities (FISU) 3×3 World University League from October 9 to 11.
3×3 basketball is a modified and faster version of the game, with just three players from each team on the court. Twelve universities will be competing in the tournament, including teams from host nation China, Brazil, Canada, France, and Russia.
It is the first time Southern Cross University has sent a team to an international event.
Whitby said he will be drawing on his QBL experience while in China. ‘In the QBL I get to play against NBL players and players straight out of division one colleges every weekend’, he said. ‘I have a feeling that the competition in China will be just as strong.
‘I’m most looking forward to playing against the top basketballers from all over the world. I have not been able to do this since I played college basketball in America.’
The Gold Coast Rollers shooting guard has previously played for NSW but never his country.
‘Representing Australia is going to be a dream come true, I never thought it would happen and now I get the chance to represent Australia and my University whilst playing with my mates in the World University Games in China.’
Jeffery said the team had faith in each other’s ability.
‘Between the four of us we’ve got years of basketball experience’, he said. ‘We don’t have a formal coach, so we analyse the game as we’re going and make the switches as appropriate. We’re big strong guys. Brodie is 6’5, 6’6. Me and James are above 6’. We proved in the UniBattle that we managed to outsize people basically.’
SCU sports officer Dave Graham was responsible for organising TeamSCU to compete at UniBattle.
‘It’s a coup for a regional university like SCU to be representing Australia’, said Graham. ‘With UniBattle we identified a good opportunity for the team to do well in the inaugural year of the event.
‘As this is SCU’s first time at a world university championship event, we are not really sure what to expect other than the other countries with a long and proud history in this sport will be very strong, and that will be a challenge to the boys.
‘But Team SCU has a lot of spunk so it will be up to the boys to stand up and to get amongst it, which I know they will.’
The winner will get a complimentary wild card by the Qatar Basketball Federation to participate in the FIBA 3×3 All Stars in December.
After the FISU tournament, Jeffery and Rice will remain in China to take part in a one-month scholarship at the Tianjin University of Sport as part of a student exchange program with Southern Cross University.
