Qatar, Japan brace for tough grind in FIBA-Asia tourney

MANILA, Philippines - Qatar and Japan, already assured of spots in the second round with unfancied Hong Kong, hope to come out strong from a pair of so-so stints in tournaments leading to the FIBA Asia Championships firing off next week at the MOA Arena and Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

Qatar and Japan are perennial qualifiers for FIBA Asia while Hong Kong is back after its last appearance in the 2007 edition that was held in Tokushima.

Qatar is considered to be a dark horse in the FIBA Asia tilt with new head coach Tom Wiseman hard-pressed to whip up the team into a fighting unit after it lost a pair of exhibition matches to Tunisia, 76-64, and 68-35 before their trip to Manila.

“We didn’t play the first match well and the team suffered from many shortcomings. To me, the results of these games aren’t that important as I’m just trying out new permutations and combinations,” said Wiseman.

He added that they changed tactics in the second match and it proved to be effective. The team performed much better although Wiseman said that they will still have to talk and analyze where they went wrong.

Ironically, Wiseman, an Australian national, was the former head coach of Japan and was tasked with helping the Japanese achieve Olympic qualification for the 2012 London Summer Games.

Despite steering Japanese team Link Tochigi Brex to the Japan Basketball League title in 2009-10, Wiseman found Olympic qualification a much more difficult task.

Japan is also heading to Manila in a somewhat dispirited state after finishing the recently concluded Jones Cup with a dismal 0-7 record.

But Japan coach, former national player Suzuki Kimikazu, is optimistic about the team’s FIBA Asia chances with top player JR Sakuragi rested and healthy.

“Sakuragi plays an important role for this team,” Kamikazu said. “Several national teams have naturalized players as centers, so we need Sakuragi.”

Japan will field a young team led by Sakuragi, Kosuke Takeuchi, Takahiro Kurihara, Daiki Tanaka and Ryota Sakurai. Also on their roster is their young 6’7” small forward Yuta Watanabe who will be attending St. Thomas More Preparatory School in Connecticut in the US after the FIBA tournament in hopes of playing for a Division One school.

Qatar, Japan and Hong Kong earned free passage to the second round following the ouster of suspended Lebanon although the three are still expected to slug it out among themselves in Group B for placings in the second round.