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.

Sitting down to write while on vacation in Hawaii is extremely difficult. I have no idea how Chad Ford does it! I have let a lot of important things go uncovered over the past week or so, so I will try to catch you up country by country in the next few posts. I would do them all right now, but I need to get a little sleep before I watch the U-19 games!

Philippines

There is a lot of news coming out of the Filipino basketball world. First, Smart Gilas, the Filipino National Team, was able to secure a gold medal in the Southeast Asia Basketball Association (SEABA) Championships held in Jakarta, Indonesia. Despite battling numerous injuries and being without a few of their PBA stars, Smart Gilas was able to win every game handily. Once again, the Philippines proved their regional dominance.

The PBA has seen a lot of action as well. In a really cool move, the PBA is on the road this week playing in the United Arab Emirates. Home to between 300,000 and 500,000 Filipinos, the games should be packed. I have witnessed firsthand in Taiwan the passion that Filipino spectators bring to the stadium when a Filipino team comes to play. The teams should feel right at home in a loud and wild arena. The first-place Texters will look to maintain their perfect record and B-Meg today and Ginebra tomorrow.

B-Meg made the biggest personnel move of the week by sending Stefhon Hannah home and bringing in well-traveled pro Darnell Hinson. Hinson has been playing internationally for the past 7 years with stops in Latin America, Europe, and Australia. While I am honestly not familiar with Hinson, anyone who can average over 20 ppg in the Australian NBL is a pretty good ball player. Hopefully he will gel with the B-Meg squad and show a more consistent shot (shoot over 35%) than Hannah did. This move will be interesting as there are only four more games in this conference before the playoffs. Is that enough time for an import to come in and make a difference?

Indonesia

It has been a busy time for basketball in Indonesia as well. In the biggest news the Indonesian National Team was able to qualify for the FIBA Asia Basketball Championship in China in September by finishing 2nd in the SEABA tournament. The Indonesian squad were trounced twice by the Filipinos, but were able to defeat both Malaysia and Singapore to secure their place.

The NBL also hosted a visiting contingent of “NBA Legends” consisting of Cedric Ceballos, Cliff Robinson, Dale Ellis, Voshon Leonard, and others. While the list of players seems hardly “legendary” to me, the two games against the NBL Select Team brought out big crowds and increased exposure to the game and league. On the 22nd the NBL also hosted a launch party for the 2011-2012 season. At the party it was announced that games would be played in even more locations around the archipelago. With no announcement regarding import players, it looks like it will still be a purely domestic league next year.

     As Ngombo (Targuy or Tanguy) continues to make headlines regarding his age I thought I needed to post a follow up to the post I put up a few days ago. I first need to apologize for my delay in doing this, family vacation in Hawaii has just begun and it is hard to juggle writing and beach time.

    This post has three parts: some thoughts from people associated with Tanguy, a brief discussion looking a little deeper at the name and date of birth debacle, and a brief rant directed at FIBA.

    To start of with I thought that looking deeper at Ngombo's game was still needed, as the game footage of Ngombo is lacking. I felt it would be beneficial to ask people who have played with or coached Tanguy about his strengths, weaknesses, and their general thoughts on him being drafted. I received three good responses.

William Belton – Belton played a year at Wofford and then transferred to Morehouse College where he was a three year starter and All-Conference performer. He has since played in a number of semi-pro leagues in the US and a season in Qatar. He played with Ngombo in 2009 for Al-Rayyan.

“When I met Tanguy and got on the court with him, the first thing you notice is he is a very reserved guy, kind of quiet even, but what surprises you is that he really has a motor and is very strong. He has good size and length for the shooting guard position and is an excellent rebounder and spot up shooter. His reputation was that of a great defender and he routinely guarded the other teams' best player. I think his offensive game could use some more polish in terms of creating space and advanced dribble moves, but he will be an excellent finisher in any system as well as be able to guard his position in the NBA, should he come over. I was very excited to see him get drafted and his subsequent draft video being shown all over the world. He really is a humble star as well, and you wish the best to any guy who carries himself as Tanguy does.”

A.J. Guyton  - Former Indiana Hoosier star and 2nd Round Draft pick should be a recognizable name to many. He played three seasons in the NBA before starting a productive career overseas. He played in 2010 with Ngombo on the Al-Rayyan squad. He is now an Assistant Coach at Illinois Central College in Peoria.

“I thought that was Tanguy last night but I didn’t remember his real name. He has a great body, very athletic but is raw. He was a streaky shooter, but his best attributes were running the floor and blocking shots. He lacked a competitive drive, which was why he didn’t really get better. He was lazy, never worked on his game. He liked to be in the gym but he would not work on his game. Maybe it was because of his youth. He was a below average ball handler. He lacks assertiveness. He could have dominated that league if he wanted to, but the killer instinct was not in him. I knew he would get an opportunity to play in the NBA because of his age, athleticism and body. Good kid who should have never been in Qatar in the first place or should have left a long time ago. I would actually like to get a player or 2 to come play in Qatar, it has the potential to be a great league, but a couple rules need to be changed. The facilities were excellent but the knowledge of the game needs improvement.”

Brian Rowsom – Rowsom was a 2nd Round pick in the 1987 draft. He played three seasons with the Pacers and the Hornets. He went on to play four seasons in Israel in the early 90’s. He has since worked as an agent, a camp organizer, and most recently as a coach in both Japan and the Middle East. He coached Ngombo for Al Rayyan this season.

“I am very proud of Tanguy and what he has accomplished by getting drafted into the NBA.I was fortunate enough to experience the same thing in 1987 so I know what he is going through. I think his game is perfect for the NBA because a large part of the game there is based on athleticism. He is a wonderful athlete who can run and jump with anyone so that's a good start. Then he is a hard worker who wants to get better. His strengths again are his athleticism and willingness to learn and work hard to get better. He still lacks some of the techniques and little things that he will learn at the next level but that will come with more experience in the US playing and working with Coaches from the NBA. I think with time, he will become a better shooter from 3 pt range and also a better ball handler which will both take his game to a higher level. The main thing about playing in the NBA is having confidence. We both mentioned a lot of his physical abilities but mentally if he stays confident, he will always have a better chance of succeeding there! I am proud of him like a father and all of my friends in the US have been asking about him. It's a positive step for Qatar Basketball and all of the people involved with basketball in this country and region!”

    So what conclusions can we draw from the three assessments above? I think the most obvious one is that the guy goes by ‘Tanguy’ and not ‘Targuy.’ Interesting when you consider that when you google ‘Targuy’ there are ten times more results than ‘Tanguy.’ All three of these gentlemen seem to recognize the same strength in his game: his athleticism. Besides that they are all over the map, even though they are all generally complimentary of his potential. They agree a little more on his weaknesses as each of them point out his poor ball-handling skills. I think Guyton’s analysis of Ngombo’s work ethic is potentially very scary for those paying his salary in the future.

    Jonathan Givony sent links out yesterday showing Ngombo’s date of birth as 1984 from both a FIBA Africa tournament and the 2012 London Olympics’ website. I went through all of FIBA Asia tournaments and events websites and confirmed that they have the same biographical information (2010 Asia Champion’s, 2010 Stankovic, 2010 Asia Games, 2011 Asia Champion’s) since he has been playing for Qatar showing that he was born in 1989. First, if this is trickery, the perpetrator did a terrible job as everyone knows that Tanguy and Targuy are the same person. This was apparent before the draft, and actually from one of Givony’s first tweets about him, "Tanguy Ngombo or Targuy Ngombo from Qatar via the Congo indeed may get drafted by Minnesota, multiple NBA people say. 6-7 very athletic 3/4." If his date of birth has in fact been changed then it is obvious that it is connected with his move to Qatar. As many people have discussed, it would have been much more difficult for him to naturalize if he moved to Qatar over the age of 16.

     In the end I think that the basketball community needs to move their focus and scorn away from Ngombo and over to the organizations that allowed this “mix up” to occur in the first place. As I mentioned in the first post, the Qatar team is universally disliked around Asia as other countries feel that the team has too many foreign-born players without Qatari heritage. The Qatar Basketball Federation can be as excited as they want about Ngombo’s selection, but someone needs to step up and start answering some questions. Ultimately though FIBA needs to figure out how this happened. I think more than ever before this situation has shown the disparity, lack of communication, and lack of oversight that FIBA has over the national teams. The evidence showing Ngombo to be five years older than his stated date of birth was on a FIBA website! The fact that information on the FIBA main page, the FIBA Africa page, and the FIBA Asia page do not correspond with each other shows the disorganization of the organization. FIBA should take a front and center position to figure out what exactly is going on here, and show leadership in enforcing their own rules.

    Then again, FIFA let Qatar buy the World Cup, so why should FIBA not allow them to buy a good basketball team?

I had other plans this evening. I wanted to write about the Indonesian NBL, the bj league draft, the upcoming SEABA Tournament, and maybe a little Taiwan hoops as well. Those plans changed when Jonathan Givony sent out the following tweets:

"Can anyone on twitter say anything about Targuy Ngombo from Qatar? Legit NBA draft prospect?"

"Hearing this Targuy Ngombo guy might get drafted. Tweeps on my timeline don't sound overly impressed."

I was shocked. I know the name (because I spend everyday reading about Asian hoops) but had never heard a mention of him as an NBA prospect. So there went my evening plans and the internet stalking . . . I mean research began.  It needs to be noted that he is also referred to as Tanguy Ngombo at times, he is such a mystery that there is no way to confirm which is the real spelling.

6'6" - 204 - SF - born in the Congo (birthplace of a certain Serge Ibaka) - arrived in Qatar sometime around 2007 - supposedly he is 21 years old - plays in the Qatari 1st Division for powerhouse Al Rayyan - began playing with the Qatari National Team in 2009. Check out his profile with his agency, Court Side. How do we take it that his own agency barely has any information on him?

For those of you not familiar with the rivalries and politics of Asian basketball, the Qatari squad are like the Miami Heat - everyone hates them. Qatar is famous for naturalizing players left and right, particularly very tall African young men. The Lebanese and Filipino fans particularly seem to take offense at this development strategy. But I digress.

I scoured Youtube and some FIBA sites and was able to come up with 5 minutes of film for everyone to watch. I could have also included some clips from the Qatar vs. India game, but does it really help anyone to watch him play against a rec league team? Please note that I did not skip over his misses in these clips. In the first game he really was shooting the lights out.

After watching four games and some highlights here is a crack at a strengths and weaknesses list.

Strengths
-Athletic
-6'6" and 205 is big enough for a wing in the NBA
-Very good outside shooter

Weaknesses
-Ball-handling
-Creating his own shot. It seems that his offense is either at the three point arc or at the rim. While he has a solid first step he seems to be lost after he gets the step.
-Experience: Too easy? But it has to be the biggest knock to a guy who has played in a mid-level league in the Middle East. Does he know how to play hard every night? What is his basketball IQ?

The biggest question about him is how NBA people would have come to know about him. My guess is that it goes back to the November 2010 Asian Games. Ngombo scored 24 and grabbed 9 rebounds against China, a game NBA scouts were surely watching.

One last question: If Minnesota is so in love with Ngombo why would they even tip their hand as they could have brought him in as a free agent to camp without anyone knowing who he is?

I love the week before the NBA Draft!

I have been working on this article for over a month now. As you can see it is not an overly long piece, nor is it overly complicated in terms of statistical analysis or game strategy. So why has this taken so long to write? It comes down to the fact that no league is as apt to make last minute changes as the PBA. It was only after the first round of games that I can confirm the import players that are over here. The bonus is that I have had a chance to see all of them play now, and have a sense of how they will fit in with their team.

Talk ‘N Text is out to complete the rare Grand Slam by winning the final conference of the season, the Governor’s Cup. But competition will be fierce as it seems all the squads are making moves to shore up their weaknesses. With the strict height restrictions the PBA imposes the imports teams find are always interesting. How tall of a player teams are allowed to sign is contingent upon where finished in the earlier two conferences. For the Governor’s Cup BMeg, MGK, TNT, and Petron have a 6’2” height limit. Alaska, Meralco, Rain or Shine, and Air21 all have a 6’4” limit. After finishing at the bottom of the pecking order the Powerade Tigers are allowed a player up to 6’6”. Below is a look at who is here, who was rumored to be coming, and who may be going very soon. Of the 9 imports playing at this moment there is one NBA veteran, 6 D-League veterans, and two former D1 players. This collection of import talent may have the best resumes the league has ever seen. Whether or not that transfers well onto the court is another story all together.

Air 21 Express - St. John’s, NBDL and PBA veteran Alpha Bangura is back with Air 21 after a successful performance in the Commissioner’s Cup. He averaged 26 and 6 while leading the Express to the semi-finals. In his first two games of this conference he has shown a good connection with his teammates and gives them a player who can make a play when needed (except tonight during the last minute against Petron).

Alaska Aces – Looking for a player to shore up their frontline Alaska brought in Jason Forte. Forte is a well-traveled pro who played two games in the PBA a year or so ago. While I understand the need to fill a position, many other players must have fallen through for the Aces to pick up Forte. Frankly he is a solid all-around player, but he does nothing exceptionally well. In his first game he scored 16 points, grabbed 14 boards, and dished out 5 assists. While those numbers look good, it took him 25 field goal attempts (and 6 free throws) to score 16 points. Often the ball stopped rotating when it came to him and he tried to force the action. In his second game he scored 22 points, but disappeared for much of the second half. He showed a lot of hustle, but he can not be relied upon to get his team a basket when they need it. With an 0-2 record Alaska fans are already calling for his removal.Things will have to change quickly if he is planning on staying in the Philippines much longer.

 B-Meg Llamados – Up until a week ago the talk was that B-Meg were planning on bringing back Courtney Beasley for this conference. At the last minute though they decided to go after a D-Leaguer who made a name for himself this season with some big-time playoff performances: Stefhon Hannah. So far the Hannah experience has been a huge disappointment. He has yet to break double digits in either of his first two games and has shot an abysmal 18% from the field. And while he dished out 10 assists last game the critics and fans are actively calling for Hannah to be replaced as soon as possible.

Barangay Ginebra Kings– Coming off an MVP year in the D-League, Curtis Stinson may be one of the most high profile imports to ever join the PBA. Stinson should find great success in the PBA for two main reasons. First, in the D-League games I watched this season he excels at the drive and dish or kick out. Filipino ballers love nothing more than to hang out at the three point line ready to bomb away. Second, Stinson is around 215 pounds. He will be able to take his opponent into the post ala Mark Jackson. In his first game Stinson was as good as advertised turning in a solid all-around performance. He only scored 15 points, but added 9 rebounds and 8 assists. His coach, Jong Uichico, summed it up nicely “He’s okay as he competes, defends, plays the post and gets his teammates involved.”

Meralco Bolts – Meralco brought back former D-Leaguer and Nigerian National Team member Champ Oguchi for another conference. Oguchi was brought in half way through the Commisioner’s Cup and showed that he could produce at a high level in the PBA. Really not too much more to say, except that his 26 point and 10 rebound first game performance was right about normal for him. He continued with another high scoring output against the Alaska Aces tonight, including key buckets down the stretch to fend off the charging Alaska squad.

Petron Blaze Boosters – Playing for the first time with the Petron name, no team has been more active in the rumor area and evaluation of potential players. Initially the rumor was that they would be bringing in Will Conroy. After that fizzled they were rumored to be deciding between Bobby Brown (NBA veteran) and Ricky Harris (former UMass star and international pro). They announced they would bring in Harris before quickly changing their minds and deciding on Mike Taylor, the former D-League star and NBA player. Taylor supposedly was a beast in the preseason practices, but he then got hurt and is out for the next few weeks. So at the last minute they brought Harris back in, and he was pretty terrible in the first game scoring 8 points on 3/15 shooting and only collecting 2 assists. Others agreed with my assessment and Harris was sent home immediately after the game.

Game 2 of the conference for the Petron saw the arrival of D-League stud Jeremy Wise the morning of the game. Showing no signs of jet-lag or the fact he had never played with his teammates before, Wise starred with 33 points, 6 boards, and 6 assists. Wise looks to be the perfect compliment for Cabagnot who finished the game with 12 points and 10 assists. Most impressive of all was that Wise played within the team system and did not force anything. He is going to thrive in the break-neck pace of the PBA.

Powerade Tigers – Former NBA player and PBA import Chris Porter was brought in as a last minute replacement for the Tigers after their original import John Williamson went down with an injury. The first rumor I heard was that they would bring in Gabe Freeman, but nothing materialized on that front. Bummer. Porter was spectacular in his first outing and pretty average in his second. The Tigers are a pretty weak squad, and B-Meg learned early in last night’s contest that they would not be punished for double-teaming Porter throughout the game. At this point he is averaging 27.5 points and 13.5 rebounds a game.

Rain or Shine Elasto Painters – High Point University’s finest Arizona Reid is making his PBA debut this conference. Reid gets my “Most Likely to Make Me Forget Gabe Freeman Award” this conference, a huge honor as anyone who reads this blog regularly knows.  Before coming to our corner of the world Reid has played in leagues in Italy, Finland, Lebanon, and Switzerland. He plays with a ton of energy and can even hit an outside shot. Over his first two games he has averaged 30 points and 14 rebounds while leading his team to a 2-0 start.

Talk N Text Tropang Texters – Maurice Baker was named as TNT’s import for the third conference pretty late in the game. Originally Scottie Reynolds was the choice, but he recently sustained an injury while playing in another league so will be unable to come over. The TNT coach was quoted as saying they “went to the bottom of the barrel” to find Baker. Not exactly a ringing endorsement. With their strong Filipino squad, Baker will be looked to as a floor general to keep everyone together. A lot of pressure is riding on Baker here, as TNT goes for the elusive Grand Slam. While Baker had a solid first outing he is going to need to step his game up even more with the injury to star point guard Jimmy Alapag. Baker will have the difficult challenge of balancing scoring and distributing the ball.

I will make sure to provide further updates as the conference progresses, particularly if any of the imports are replaced. If anyone wants to know how to watch online send me a tweet @asiabballupdate.

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.  

By no means has Will Graves taken the easy route to the NBA. But here he is today working out for the Toronto Raptors. Before the season Graves was talked about as an essential member of the UNC program - a veteran who would provide leadership along with his long-range shooting prowess. But those plans came crashing down as Graves was dismissed from the Tar Heels right before the season began.

Will Graves arrived in Japan in February and played in 17 games for the expansion Akita Northern Happinets (my favorite basketball team name ever) when he should have been dancing in March. Unlike Jeremy Tyler, the other NBA prospect in the bj league, NBA scouts were able to get a good sense of his game during his three years in college. Graves will perhaps be best remembered for his final game in college, the 2010 NIT Championship. In that game Graves scored 25 while nailing 7 three-pointers.

Graves did not disappoint during his stint in Japan. He showed off his fantastic shooting touch and his size and strength. I put together two clips. In the first one Graves (#9 in White) scores 32 points against the Tokyo Apache. You will notice that Graves spends most of the game guarding Tyler. Despite the 5 inch and 25 pound disadvantage Graves is able to keep Tyler off the boards. He exploits the match-up on multiple occasions attacking from the perimeter.

Below is a clip from Graves' best statistical output of the season. 41 points, 20 rebounds, and 5 assists as he leads his team to a big victory over the cellar-dwelling Niigata squad.

Overall, Graves averaged 21 points and 11 rebounds. He shot 39% from the field while hitting 36% of his threes. At 6'6" and 220+ pounds, Graves has the body of an NBA small forward. While his long range shooting is definitely NBA quality, Graves is not particularly strong at creating his own offense. He is a long shot to make an NBA team this year, but he should play really well in the D-League if he chooses to go that route. That being said, I also think his size and abilities would make him a hot commodity for a European or Chinese team.

Lastly, here is a link to a great interview with Graves and his coach from the Akita Northern Happinets.