Edmonton Masters Preview

Author

Princeton3x3
July 26, 2023

Welcome to the latest edition of The Drive! This is your inside pass into the world of 3×3, where we bring you behind-the-scenes access, game updates, and all the latest news straight from the court.

Today we are looking ahead to the upcoming Masters event in Edmonton and digging into what winning a Masters event means for 3×3 teams.

Edmonton Masters

  • When: July 28-29, 2023

  • Where: Fan Park, Edmonton

  • Circuit: 5th Masters event of the Pro Circuit

  • Prize: First-place wins $40,000

  • Watch: FIBA 3x3’s YouTube channel

Princeton finished 2nd in Edmonton last season, losing the title match in overtime to Vienna. The event features an outdoor court right next to Rogers Place, home of the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers. Outdoor courts are one of the many things that make 3x3 special.

Note: Masters events are the highest level of competition on the FIBA 3x3 Pro Circuit.

Edmonton invitees

Ub Huishan NE (SRB) is the top team in the world and has won each of the first 4 Masters events of the year. They will be joined by (3) Amsterdam (NED), (6) Riga (LAT), and (9) Ulaanbaatar MMC Energy (MGL), all of whom are ranked in the top 10 in the world.

You can see how each team punched their Masters ticket here. Princeton, ranked 19th in the world, qualified for Edmonton by winning the Sin City Classic Lite Quest. This was one of the more memorable sequences from Vegas:

Princeton's lineup

The Huffman-Carrington-Caruso trio has not competed together since winning the Baoding Challenger (China) in June.

Tournament seedings and pools

Princeton, the 7-seed in the tournament, will be playing in Pool B along with Amsterdam and Toronto.

  • Friday 2:10pm PT - (7) Princeton vs (2) Amsterdam HiPro

  • Friday 4:00pm PT - (7) Princeton vs (10) Toronto KBA

All games can be viewed on FIBA 3x3’s YouTube channel.

Amsterdam is coming off a title at the Pristina Challenger where Worthy de Jong won MVP honors.

Note: Seedings are based on each team’s Pro Circuit rankings as of the Monday before the event. Team rankings can be found here.

What it would mean to win

Winning the Edmonton Masters will help propel Princeton up the Pro Circuit Rankings and give the team a better opportunity to make the World Tour Final (see standings). Each event that US teams play in help the Federation in their quest for an automatic bid to the Olympics. Stay tuned for more on the Olympics in an upcoming newsletter.

Edmonton going strong

Edmonton first became a stop on the Pro Circuit in 2018. In 2018, 2019, and 2022, the city successfully hosted Challenger events, and now has earned the right to host its first Masters. The Edmonton Masters will be the only Masters event played in the Americas during the 2023 Pro Circuit.

3x3 circuit news

There were 2 Challengers last week. Paris won the Bordeaux Challenger, beating Miami in the finals. Beijing won the Wuxi Challenger, beating Partizan in the finals. For those keeping track, 3 out of the 4 Challengers we have covered in the newsletter have been won by a team based in the same country as the host city. The Pristina Challenger in Kosovo didn’t include a team from Kosovo, so it wasn’t possible for the host to win in Pristina. Toronto will be the unofficial home team in Edmonton.

Upcoming Princeton schedule

Thanks for reading!