With BOSM 2026 in the wings, the BOSM English Press sat down with Arnav Chhabra, the captain of the boys’ basketball team, to discuss the team’s preparation for this year’s edition.
Arnav explained that there would be around 20 teams competing, divided into four pools of five teams each, with the top two teams from each pool qualifying for the quarter-finals. Each game would be divided into four quarters of 10 minutes each, with each team consisting of a twelve-man squad: five players on the court and seven on the bench.
Arnav felt the team’s preparation was not as up to the mark as in previous years, mainly because the team relied heavily on third- and fourth-year students, whose availability was affected by delayed placements and the summer internship season. Yet the captain remained optimistic in his team’s ability to win the whole thing, emphasising that they would need to ramp up practice in the coming week and remain wary of injuries. The team practice sessions are divided into two sections: 6 a.m. to 7:30 a.m., focusing on their athleticism, stamina and endurance, and 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., working on the technical aspects of the game and overall team chemistry. In the days leading up to BOSM, they planned to shift their focus completely to game fundamentals and reduce practice time to keep their bodies fresh.
Talking about their past results, Arnav noted that the team clinched silver in BOSM the year before last, and bronze the previous year. They also played in IIT Ropar’s ‘Aarohan’ where they won bronze the year before last, and gold the previous year. According to the captain, the team’s biggest strength was its continuity, in that it was the same core group of third- and fourth-year players in the playing team, so they weren’t dependent on a single player. Rather, they had a deep, well-balanced team. The team generally formed two squads, Team A and Team B: historically, Team A had around twelve players, but this year it would consist solely of a core group of eight to nine players, who would all get decent playing time. Unlike other sports teams, the basketball team had a year-round coach who had been with them since the previous semester, and hence had in-depth knowledge of everyone’s strengths and weaknesses, which could prove to be a game-changing advantage.
Arnav named Hansraj College and Kirori Mal College as BITS’s historic rivals, mentioning that they had a well-balanced track record against both: the team had beaten both DU colleges the year before last, and managed to beat Hansraj before losing to KMC the previous year.
Recruitments were held in the first or second week of August, and around three to four players were taken on probation. Regarding the current year’s recruits, the captain said that though they were currently falling a tad short of the mark, they were fresh faces and it would be easy to “teach them the good habits of basketball”. He added that they were the future of the team and showed potential to be moulded into the leaders the team would need the following year.
On a parting note, Arnav urged the GBM to “pull up” to the matches to support their team, noting that a supportive home crowd lowers the morale of the opposition team and boosts their own, which could shift the momentum in a match.