I hope everyone has had a chance to read Dan Levin's fantastic article about Yao and the future of Chinese basketball. If not, follow this link.

I wanted to add one quick thought to the piece. Levin quotes Coach Donewald regarding the effect that the Chinese views on education have on the development of basketball players.

"Those who do play on public courts are in their 20s or older, Donewald said, reflecting Chinese society’s traditionally single-minded focus on education. That means most children spend their days and nights studying for tests, not playing pick-up games in the park or practicing in after-school programs. "

Living in China for three years, I agree 100% with Donewald assessments, but I think it is important to note that this problem is not unique to China. Korea, Japan, and Taiwan (all countries with a Confucian tradition) also lose participation in sports as children grow older. Participating in sports in any of these countries is often seen as a sign that you lack the intelligence to perform well academically, so instead you will be an athlete. No "smart" student would be able to sacrifice the two hours a day that one would practice with a sports team.

I do not know if there is any way to reconcile the two sides to this issue without a seismic shift in cultural values.

Just my two cents on a great article . . . And by the way, I disagree that the cupboard is bare for Chinese basketball. They are the best team in East Asia in all divisions and compete with Iran, Lebanon, and Jordan for every Asia-wide title. They need better guard play, but most of the world would kill for their height.

In a disastrous three days the hopes that one of the three Asian teams would make a run at the U-19 FIBA World Championship were quickly put to rest. Finishing with a combined record 1-8 record in the initial group play, China, South Korea, and Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) will continue on in the “Classification Round” to determine 13th through 16th place. These three teams came in with varying levels of expectation, but in the end have all found themselves in the same place.

Before I begin the recap for each team, I must say how disappointing it is that the only games broadcast over the first three games of the tournament were of the host-country Latvian team. If FIBA’s mission is to create a world-wide competition with passionate fans they failed completely. Really, I watched online games broadcast from gyms in rural Colorado and Wyoming this year, how can FIBA (or is it Latvia) not ensure that every game is available to fans?

China

The Chinese team came in with the most confidence and the highest expectations of the three teams. With a FIBA ranking of 16, the Chinese came in expecting to get out of the preliminary stage of the tournament. Unfortunately for them, Egypt rose to the occasion to play inspired basketball against the Chinese and stole the game in double overtime. In a tournament with few other upsets, that loss ended the Chinese team’s hopes for advancing.

Individually a few of the Chinese players were able to produce solid stat lines. The most famous player on the team, Guo Ailun played sparingly in the final game, but averaged 19 ppg, 3.5 rpg, and 4.5 apg in the first two contests. Unfortunately for Guo, the 12 turnovers in those first two games take away from the impressiveness of the previous numbers. Actually, the entire Chinese squad struggled to control the ball and averaged over 18 turnovers per match during the first three days.

Along with Guo, the other bright spots for the Chinese team were the play of Zhai Xiaochuan and Wang Zirui. Zhai led the team in both scoring and rebounding posting averages of 16.3 ppg and 7.3 rpg. At 6’8” Zhai has really nice size for the Small Forward position. Wang is lesser known than some of his teammates, but showed that that should not be the case. The Zhejiang Guangsha junior team point guard finished with a well-rounded stat line of 12.7 ppg, 5.7 rpg, and 3.7 apg.

South Korea

The Korean squad came in with very little press, just as you would expect for a team that was not ranked highly, but was also not considered to be one of the weakest squads (Taiwan and Tunisia filled that role). As such, the Koreans came out and shocked most people with their play over the three days. On the first day the Koreans took a lead into the last minute against the Canadians, only to squander it on turnovers and fouls.

After getting demolished by the Lithuanian boys on Day 2, the Koreans came out with the biggest upset of the tournament by defeating the Croatian team. While this win is impressive, and the Koreans should be congratulated, it needs to be noted that the Croatians sat their starting PG and C for the entire game. Korea and China will go head to head on Monday, July 4th.

Taiwan

The Taiwanese team came to the tournament marked as the “small fish” or “last man picked.” Their coach, Huang Wan-lung did nothing to dispel this when he was quoted as saying “I tell my guys let's make friends here because basketball is just a game so we need to enjoy ourselves and makes friends amongst the other players and coaches.” Somehow I do not think that the Latvian team they faced on the first day were told to have fun and make friends by their coach before the game. With no pressure on them, the Taiwanese squad lived up to expectations . . . and lost all three of their games.

The problem for the Taiwanese was truly one of size. Their average height was over 6 cm shorter than the next shortest team. It is no surprise that they had difficulty rebounding against the taller international competition. In the game against Latvia the Taiwanese were outrebounded 57-17. The Latvians were able to grab 24 offensive rebounds against their over-matched opponents. The trio of Hung Kang-chiao, Chen Ying-chun, and Hu Long-mao played relatively well showing flashes of the basketball talent there is in Taiwan. Watch for those three to make their way on to the Senior National Team in the next few years.

What’s next?

In a few hours the Koreans and Chinese will face off and the Taiwanese will go up against the Tunisian squad. While there is no way to move above 13th, we can only hope that the teams all play to their fullest potential to showcase a little of the talent and potential present here in Asia.

Sorry that I am a little slow to finish off my coverage of the event in Nanjing. So here is a super post covering Days 4 and 5.

Day 4

Mongolia vs. Hong Kong

The 5/6 game is interesting only because it matched up the two teams who really had no chance in this tournament. While the results from earlier in the week would have suggested the Mongolian squad was more competitive, the Hong Kong squad showed that they do have some talent (something a -148 point differential for the first two games did not imply). Going into the half Mongolia was up by 2 points, but Hong Kong came out hot in the third and went up by ten. In the end Hong Kong was able to hold on for the 87-83 victory.

South Korea vs. Taiwan

Taiwan started the game slowly for the third time in three games. Unfortunately for them the South Koreans are a veteran squad and knew how to hold on to the lead. South Korea ended the game on top with a 69-61 victory. For Taiwan, Yulon’s Lu Cheng-ju was the high point man with 15 points.

China vs. Japan

Does beating China’s B team really matter? The feeling among fans and followers of Asian basketball is that the Chinese obviously cared very little about the result of the tournament, as they are assured a spot in the September tournament, and have home court advantage no matter what. Japan played a great game, and were able to make the Chinese turn the ball over much more than they usually do. In a somewhat surprising ending the Japanese came out on top with a 72-62 win.

Day 5

China vs. Taiwan

While China may have cared very little about the outcome of the previous game, any match between these two political foes will lead to a passionate game and a full effort from both squads. Chinese guard Meng Duo ended up being the difference maker in this game as his lights out shooting in the 3rd sparked a devastating 30-11 third quarter. The Taiwanese squad were unable to mount a comeback and the scored ended up a lopsided 87-53. Both teams are missing key players, but it looks like when the Chinese players are out to win they are going to be extremely difficult to beat.

South Korea vs. Japan

Old rivals Japan and South Korea met for the gold, and the right for top seed coming out of the East Asia region. It was a game of runs as South Korea stormed ahead to a double digit lead in the first quarter, only to let Japan come right back with a big second period. Korea finally blew open the game in the final period, finishing with an 89-73 victory for the gold.

In the end the tournament left me with more questions than answers as to the quality of the four teams that will be advancing. South Korea and Japan brought pretty complete rosters to the event, so we have a good sense of what they are capable of. It has been widely discussed by me and others that the Chinese team was their ‘B’ unit. Which of these players will get a chance to play in the September tournament? Taiwan remains the biggest wild card though. They played this tournament without their best center (Tseng Wen-ting), one of their top forwards (Tien Lei), their premier point guard (Lin Chih-chieh), and without their best young player (Jet Chang). It looks like the first three will be available to play, but with his commitments in the US it is unlikely Jet will be able to play in the September tournament. This is truly a shame as he showed in last year’s Stankovic Cup that he could score against top tier international competition.

Next up for all you Asia basketball fans is the SEABA Championship next week in Jakarta. Three more teams will ultimately gain entrance to the September tournament in China.

Sunday saw the end of round robin play. China defeated South Korea 61-54 in the less meaningful of the two games as both teams had already qualified for the next round.

The other match-up was more important though as the winner of the Japan-Mongolia game would not only advance to the semi-finals, but also would qualify for the FIBA Asia Championship in September. Japan came out strong in the 1st quarter and built an 11 point lead. While Mongolia fought hard throughout the game they were unable to crack Japan's lead. The end score was 94-73 in favor of Japan.

While the four teams that were supposed to advance all did, to me the biggest news of this tournament has been the competitiveness of the Mongolian squad. While the four "big boys" of this tournament all played at less than full strength, the fact that Mongolia was not blown out in their two matches is noteworthy in my opinion. It should be interesting to see if they treat their coming game against Hong Kong with as much pride and passion as they have the last two.

On Tuesday Japan will face China and Taiwan will go up against South Korea. China should handle Japan while the Taiwan-South Korea match-up should be a great game. In the end though, I think the winner of this tournament will end up being the team that places the most value on winning it all. Will the teams keep focusing on giving young players experience, or will they choose to play the veterans to ensure a higher seed in the Asia Championships?

Day 2 of this “tournament” unfolded as predicted. In the first game of the day the Mongolian squad came out strong and actually had a lead at half-time. But today was not a day for upsets as Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) took control in the 3rd and cruised to a 14 point victory 85-71.

In the second game Hong Kong was once again overmatched and overpowered. China had a 28-5 lead after the first quarter and never looked back, winning 104-43 in the end.

Of the three spots open for the FIBA Asia Championship two were secured today. Tomorrow’s match-up between Japan and Mongolia will determine who the fourth representative from the region will be in September (China has an automatic entry). The Semi-Finals and Finals will be played on Tuesday and Wednesday. Winning the tournament could have positive implications for seeding in the September tournament, so we should hopefully see some continued effort in the final two rounds.

In what will perhaps be the least suspenseful tournament ever, China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, and Hong Kong are meeting in Nanjing over the next three days in the East Asia Basketball Championship. This tournament is a qualifying tournament for the FIBA Asia Championship in September. As the host, China has already qualified. Thus, the top three finishers besides China will get an invite to play in September. It is pretty easy to tell which two teams will not be going further. In the first game of the tournament South Korea defeated Hong Kong 134-47. Hong Kong will need to defeat China by 88 points tomorrow in order to advance . . . not happening.

The second game of the day was actually a great game with Taiwan pulling out a narrow 75-74 victory over Japan on last second free throws. Now Mongolia stands in the way of these two teams.

But my favorite ridiculous subplot of the whole tournament is that China filled their team with some suspended players so that they could get their suspension out of the way before the Asia Championship. http://www.niubball.com/2011/05/cba-announces-12-man-roster-for-fiba-east-asia-championship/ Trust China to find a bureaucratic loophole in a FIBA suspension.  

Taiwan - Wednesday and Friday night double-headers this week taught us quite a bit about how the rest of the season is shaping up. The most interesting game was the Yulon vs. Bank of Taiwan match-up on Wednesday. This marked our first chance to see Yulon in action without Tseng Wen-ting manning the middle. The results were not pretty, as BoT easily handled Yulon.

Despite losing to Taiwan Beer Wednesday night, KKL was competitive the whole game. Shawn Hawkins seems to be finding his footing (and his jumpshot) and they are falling into a nice rhythm. The positive results continued on Friday night as KKL beat Taiwan Mobile to move out of the cellar.

In the other game on Friday Pure Youth pulled out a close game against Dacin in a battle between 2nd and 3rd place teams. Jones-Jennings had another massive game with 22 points and 25 rebounds. This guy really deserves a bigger contract in the future.

Japan - In JBL news, Aishin came away with the Emperor's Cup title. Regularly season action now finally resumes this week. In less positive news, the JBL has taken over the Hokkaido-based Rera Kamuy franchise after the team's ownership failed to pay multiple league fees and broke numerous league policies. They have fired coach Joe Bryant as part of the restructuring as well (aka cost cutting measures). In my opinion, this opens the door for the bj-league to enter into the Hokkaido market. As Niigata has shown, a team that struggled financially in the JBL can operate successfully in the bj-league.

The bj-league All-Star Game is this weekend. Hopefully I can put up highlights from the game soon.

Korea - As I predicted a few weeks back the the Samsung Thunder are making a push to join the group of teams at the top of the league standings. After a tough overtime loss to KCC Egis, Samsung has pulled off three wins a row, including a 15 point victory over 1st place Sonic Boom KT. With Aaron Haynes' continued all-around superb play, Samsung looks to make the league a four team race.

Philippines - Game one of the PBA Philippines Cup is tonight as the Beermen take on the Texters for the title. The teams split their two meetings earlier this year. The teams both field a balanced attack with multiple players capable of exploding for big games. Should be a fun series to watch!

ASEAN - Semi-Finals action this weekend. I am excited to watch the Patriots (and one of my favorites Gabe Freeman) take on the Dragons. The Dragons have an interior-focused offense now while the Patriots play a fast-paced style. It should be an interesting contrast.

CHINA - Is it weird that I was more excited to watch Lester Hudson play in China than I am to watch Rafer Alston? Hudson is averaging 23.3 ppg in his first three games, and Guangdong has won two of those games. Looks like Chinese teams are starting to figure out which kind of import is successful in their league.

Six games in total over the past two days, triple-headers are a nice benefit of the SBL's cost-cutting managerial style. So first a recap of the individual games, and then some random thoughts and analysis. This gets a little long . . . be warned.

Pure Youth 84 - Dacin 73
This was an interesting match-up of imports as both Jones-Jennings and Gayden are physically imposing compared to the Taiwanese players. With a 200 cm height restriction teams either go for the long athlete, or the brick wall. While Gayden is a great athelete, both of these players have some brick-wallishness about them.

This was a lot closer of a game then the final outcome suggests. Frankly, the teams were evenly matched in almost every statistical category. In the end it came down to Pure Youth hitting a couple more shots and then sinking their free throws at the end of the game. The imports had a nice little battle, showing a difference in their style of play. Jones-Jennings finished with 16 and 15 largely by moving people inside, while Gayden showed some versatility by stepping out for jump shots, he found the most success on inside moves and put backs, ending the night with 22 and 14. The best Taiwanese performance came by way of PY's Chien Chia-Hung who finished with 26.

Taiwan Beer 93 - KKL 72
Not too much to comment on this game, Taiwan Beer is just a lot better team. KKL is still without an import player since the departure of Bailey. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this game is that all twelve players on Taiwan Beer saw at least 8 minutes of action. Phenomenal substituting by the coaching staff!

KKL's Chang Jung-hsuan leads the league in scoring at this point, but is really going to benefit from the presence of Shawn Hawkins on the opposite wing.

Taiwan Mobile 78 - Bank of Taiwan 72
Mobile jumped out to a 25-10 lead at the end of the 1st and appeared to be on their way to an easy victory. Not so. Bank of Taiwan slowly chipped away at the margin over the next two periods, starting the 4th only down by 2. While Mobile did hold on, it was an unimpressive victory to say the least. Dove continues to confuse me. He looks good out there, and is by far the best athlete on the court at all times. It does not seem to be translating to a huge impact on the court though. One problem Mobile faces is their lack of depth. They only went 8 deep in this game and it showed. Faulknor had another average performance. He plays with a ton of energy and makes good things happen, but does not seem to have the ability to create his own shots. This would not be a problem if his teammates could create shots . . .

Dacin 86 - KKL 72
The only good news coming out of this game was that one team would finally get a 'W'. Dacin, riding on the physical interior play of Gayden and Tien Lei pulled ahead in the 2nd Quarter and never looked back. Gayden has looked better each game after an ugly performance in the opener against Tseng and his Yulon teammates.

Yulon 76 - Pure Youth 74 (OT)
By far the game of the night, and the game of the season far was this battle between two of the top teams in the league. I saw this as a match-up to determine who is the #2 team in the league at this point, as Taiwan Beer looks to be in a class of their own. Anyway, after taking a commanding lead early, Yulon let Pure Youth back into the game in the 4th. Pure Youth's charge was really a team effort, with big contributions from a number of players.

In the end there were some awful calls down the stretch that all went Yulon's way. As a result they were able to force overtime and come out with the victory. One thing I can't figure out is where was James Mao? I did not notice him get injured against Dacin the night before. Pure Youth needs his scoring, and this would have been a completely different game with him in the lineup.

Taiwan Beer 73 - Taiwan Mobile 59
Once again, at the end of this game I was not sure I knew how good Taiwan Beer is as a team. By this I mean, until they are challenged regularly I do not think we will have an accurate read on their team personality. Dove had an ugly game for Mobile, scoring 7 points on 3/12 shooting. He at least grabbed 12 rebounds.


Thoughts

• We know that Taiwan Beer, Yulon, and Pure Youth are good. We know that Taiwan Mobile, Bank of Taiwan, and KKL in their current state are weak. Dacin is the only team I do not think we have a real read on yet. They play Bank of Taiwan on Wednesday.
• I am tempted to rate the imports today, but am going to wait until next week and I have seen them all play one more time.
• Last night I had SBL running on one computer and the CBA running on the other, and could not help but think about the awkward relationship the two leagues have. If I were a CBA team I would be recruiting Taiwanese players aggressively. The fan support, sponsorship, and facilities of the SBL can in no way compete with the CBA. I understand a CBA team would have to think about the political message they were sending by bringing over a handful of Taiwanese players, but the basketball rewards would be worth it. There are at least a 10-15 players with the skill level to play in the CBA playing in the SBL right now, if not more. Taiwanese teams lack the size of Chinese teams, but at point and wing positions are as good, if not better. In my opinion of course . . .  It will be interesting to see what rumors about player movement start swirling at the end of this season.
  

I joked about it two days ago when discussing Javaris Crittenton's departure from the CBA, I guess I really should have put money on it!

From NiuBball.com:
"Though Sina is reporting that the team is cutting Francis, a source speaking to NiuBBall.com indicated that the break-up was mutual and that both sides were equally ready to move on.  Francis, who was brought in on a large contract after Beijing head coach, Min Lulei, flew out to the U.S. to watch him work out in November, became quickly frustrated with Min over his lack of minutes and felt as if the team was merely using him to sell tickets and merchandise.  Francis had not played more than five minutes in a single game, and had received his second straight DNP-CD tonight against Jiangsu after not getting any action on Friday against Bayi."

I for one am relieved that this happened early in the season. I hope that they look closely at their needs before signing a new import. With Lee Hsueh-Lin manning the point I see their biggest need being a scoring wing player. Scott Schroeder of Ridiculous Upside was not to far off when he floated Rashad McCants name. McCants is the kind of scoring guard who has found success in the CBA (see Andre Emmett and Quincy Douby as examples). But if not McCants, high scoring guards who are in game shape are not that difficult to find.

On the other side of the story, it will be interesting to see where Francis ends up next . . . or should I say whose headache he will be next?

The influx of NBA-talent into the CBA this off-season was the most publicized topic in the history of Asian basketball outside of Yao Ming. It seemed that all the major news outlets had at least one story on the subject. As the names of former NBA players signing contracts with CBA teams kept rolling in, discussion about China, and the CBA in particular, taking on a new importance in the world basketball scene increased. While much of that talk is justified, the excitement about many of the NBA veterans has proved not to be.

Crittenton is the third former NBA player to be cut this season, joining Ricky Davis and Patrick O’Bryant on early flights home. More than anything I think these cases need to be a lesson for CBA teams. Crittenton and O’Bryant were both drafted on potential and “upside.” The reason they are not in the NBA (not including Crittenton’s encounter with Arenas) is that neither of them lived up to this potential. Frankly, they were not good enough to be in the NBA. Anyone who watched them play in the NBA knew that Crittenton is neither a point guard nor a shooting guard and that O’Bryant is the world’s tallest match stick and has a phobia for painted areas. I discussed Ricky Davis a few days ago, but to reiterate, he too is a player who never lived up to his potential. It is flawed logic on the part of CBA teams to think that just because a player was in the NBA they will be successful in China. Time to do a little more scouting!

The interesting bet at this point would be who is next. Mike James’ name is floating around as a potential cut, but after that who is not going to live up to expectations? Does anyone know how much of Francis’ contract is guaranteed? I can imagine Beijing is rereading his contract trying to find an out clause . . . or they are just praying for him to flick someone off again?