Belgium competes for the second time at the FIBA 3×3 Europe Cup, lining up at the start as an outsider capable of overturning hierarchies, given their unlikely victory at the U18 World Championship last year. Belgian players make sporadic appearances on the 3×3 tour and only one athlete scores in the Top 200 Individual World Ranking, but at the U23 level.
In a team where experience rules, the team leader is veteran Wen Boss Mukubu, a Belgian player of Congolese origin, who played a decisive part in his national team’s qualification to Eurobasket, back in 2015.
However, Belgium’s greatest hopes are linked to Vincent Peeters, an up-and-coming athlete, U18 World Champion with the Belgian 3×3 national team, in Chengdu, China, back in 2017. Appointed in the Championship’s all star team, Peeters has been studying in the United States, dreams of NBA and believes that aggressive attack makes the difference in 3×3 basketball, as well as the efficiency in penalty throws. He strongly believes that nowadays, tally is not at all the main asset in modern streetball play, but rather relationships with teammates. Furthermore, Peeters has been a key member of the Belgian junior 5×5 basketball national teams in recent years.
Best player in the Individual Ranking: Ayoub Nouhi, 142th place at U23 – he played for Belgium in the FIBA 3×3 Europe Cup Qualifier, in Poitiers, where a 4th place finish secured the Belgians’ tickets for the finals in Bucharest
Previous results at FIBA 3×3 Europe Cup: 6th place in 2014
Players: Wen Boss Mukubu (35, 1.98 m), Vincent Peeters (19, 1.95 m), Randy Oveneke (32, 2.01 m), Stephane Moris (32, 2.06 m)
Group D, with Russia and Poland
