TAIPEI (Chinese Taipei) - The generation of stars that led the Chinese Taipei national team to 4^th place at FIBA Asia Cup 2013 are slowly aging away. It was a historic run that ended up with their highest finish in the Asia Cup since the turn of the millennium. The transition phase to play with a younger generation of players has been bumpy, with back-to-back finishes lower than 10^th place.

The youth revolution has started and it starts with guys like promising 26-year-old forward Hu Long-Mao.

During the FIBA World Cup Asia Qualifiers, Hu was one of the more promising players that saw a leap of production as a member of the senior national team. Going up against some of the best in Asia, Hu averaged 7.4 points per game including two 15-point games against Japan and Australia.

"It was my honor to play against the best teams in Asia at the Asian Qualifiers. It’s the best experience and the greatest opportunity to challenge myself and also learn from the best in this tournament. Moreover, I’ve improved my skills and hopefully I’ll get better in the future," Hu says.

His play at the Asian Qualifiers was an improvement from his FIBA Asia Cup debut in 2017. Having only logged 7.3 minutes per game over 4 contests, Hu managed to score only 3 points in total over the entire competition. After multiple seasons of honing his craft in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) with the Fujian Sturgeons and the Guangzhou Long Lions, Hu believes that he can continue to improve to succeed along with the national team.

"'Believe' is the key point," Hu emphasizes. "I believe the hard work pays off. I believe in all my teammates and coaches who have faith in me so we could win together as one. Thanks for the people who support and believe in us. I appreciative it!"

Getting to play in the Asia Cup was a good opportunity for Hu to be exposed on which areas of the game he needs to improve on. It is especially important for a young team like Chinese Taipei to get as many games against high level talent as they can.

"In my opinion, the format of [Asia Cup] is good for all the teams," expresses the 1.96M (6’5”) forward. Teams have chances to play against each other and mixed matches with other teams from another bracket. Therefore, teams could have extra chance to advance to the next round."

Guys like Hu, Chou Yi-Hsiang, Chen Ying-Chun, and Liu Cheng are becoming the new faces of Chinese Taipei basketball. Though they are certainly on the rise, there’s no time to press pause on working to get even better.

"Most of our teammates are only able to get together and workout in summer time. We do not have enough time to practice as a group, but I think our leverage is to learn the game-plan quickly and also to build up chemistry in a short time," Hu admits. "Although we have done a good job, we must continue to practice and work harder to carry each other and make this team better."

Now with the CBA in the off-season, Hu has already gathered with his national team pals in preparation for future competitions ahead. One of the most important tournaments down the road in the near future is the FIBA Asia Cup 2021 Qualifiers, which will commence later this year. That leaves quite some time for Hu to polish his game.

"I always do my best both on defense and offense when I am on the court," says Hu. "I wish I could be more consistent on defense. Also work on my fundamentals and offense skills especially increasing my field goal percentage and being more consistently on shooting so I can contribute to the team both on offense and defense and give the team an opportunity to win the ball game."

There’s one team in particular that Hu looks forward to going up against in the upcoming rounds of the FIBA Asia Cup. After playing in the CBA over the years, matching up against the China national team is something that Hu always looks forward to do. He won't have to wait for long as the two teams have been draw together in the same group at the Qualifiers.

"China is a team I enjoy playing against in Asia. They were considered the best team in Asia last Olympics and they beat us easily [at the EABA Championship 2017]. But, [playing against them] was the best experience I ever had.

"Furthermore, it was fun to play against my CBA teammate, [Wang Zhelin]. He is one of the best centers in Asia and we never really had the chance to play against each other in the CBA. It’s indeed a pleasure to play against him and I had a great time challenging him on the court."

FIBA