BANGKOK (Thailand) - Now we can breathe.

It’s been an intense 48 hours in just the first gameday of the first window in the first ever FIBA Asia Cup 2021 Qualifiers. Now that we’ve seen 18 teams in action over the past 9 games, let’s take the time to reflect and what we’ve witnessed.

Results

Can’t always trust the rankings

Korea, Iran, Chinese Taipei, and Jordan enjoyed their crushing wins over their lower-ranked opponents, but such was not the case for all teams in the first gameday. Others had to be reminded the hard way that these games have to be played and the results don't always go as expected.

In fact, it was the very first game of the Qualifiers that surprised everybody when New Zealand took down Australia right in their own home court in Brisbane. It was the first time the Tall Blacks had beaten their neighboring rivals in over a decade. New Zealand are ranked 24^th in the latest update of the FIBA World Ranking presented by Nike, while Australia are all the way up at 3^rd.

The win is certainly a good sign for FIBA Hall of Famer Pero Cameron who was making his coaching debut.

 

Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, got their win over Qatar at home right in front of their faithful fans. The game was played at the King Abdullah Sports Complex, the first FIBA competition ever played in Jeddah.

The upset saw a 28-spot different between the 94^th-ranked Saudi Arabia and their fellow team from the Gulf, 66^th-ranked Qatar, getting the win after starting the game on fire. Mathna Almarwani led Saudi Arabia in scoring with 20 points, including clutch baskets down the stretch.

 

That wasn't even the biggest upset of the first gameday. That honor goes to 113^th-ranked Bahrain for beating 74^th-ranked India, completing the win in dramatic fashion.

India went up by 6 points with less than a minute to go, but Bahrain never backed down in front of their rowdy fans at Khalifa Sports City in Manama. Hesham Sarhan dropped the game-winning three-pointer in the corner to take the lead for good, leaving just over a 1 second on the game clock.

 

Palestine (ranked 90^th) would have liked to complete their upset over Kazakhstan (ranked 75^th), especially after a monster game from Sani Sakakini (more on that later). However, the home team fed off the energy of the fans at Nur Sultan and kept their cool to come away with a win.

Even in the big wins, the lower-ranked teams found some success in the first quarter. Indonesia led Korea 27-21 in the first interval while Sri Lanka trailed Jordan only 18-16.

Anything is possible.

Make it rain

There was one thing that was not in shortage in these first two days: Three-pointers.

Korea started the barrage when they poured in 17 triples in their rout over Indonesia. Coach Rajko Toroman of Indonesia didn’t hesitate to praise his opponents, saying that he was facing the “shooting school” of Korea and that they were “the best players in Asia”. Such compliments were well deserved for coach Kim Sang-Shik’s squad who made their long range shots at a 50.0 percent conversion rate.

 

That might have sparked a light in the competitive spirit of Chinese Taipei for their game against Malaysia in the following day. They managed to surpass Korea in volume with 24 threes, though a smidge lower in accuracy at 49 percent.

 

It’s tough enough beating these two teams on a normal day. It's much more difficult when they are in the zone as they were here.

Big mean men

Three-point shooting played a big role in those big wins, but it’s not to say that the big men in these first few games haven’t done their part.

In particular, it was Hamed Haddadi who did everything for Iran in their win. The 4-time Asia Cup MVP was one assist away from a triple-double against Syria, same as the last time these two teams faced each other at Asia Cup 2017. Haddadi put up “only” 14 points but also recorded 14 rebounds (second most among all players), 9 assists (most among all players), and 5 blocks (most among all players).

 

Bahrain’s big man CJ Giles also had a productive game for his team, topping all players with 15 boards to go with 15 points in a victory. 21-yea-old center Mohammed Alsuwailem wasn’t relied on for scoring with Saudi Arabia and instead produced quality minutes with 9 rebounds and 3 blocks.

The style of play in modern basketball might suit smaller, quicker players and long range shooters, but make no mistake - the big men can still bring it.

In-SANI-ty

Palestine might not have been able to get a win over Kazakhstan, but it was not for a lack of effort and hustle. Especially not from Sani Sakakini, who erupted for 44 points with 6 three-pointers and 10 rebounds. Coincidentally, his biggest game at Asia Cup 2015 when he scored 32 points and grabbed 18 rebounds was also against Kazakhstan.

 

Sakakini did not rest for a single second in this game and came so close to bringing an important win back home to Palestine.

“It’s a six-game series in this group, not just one game,” Sakakini said in the postgame press conference. “We got one good thing is that we lost by only 3 points, so that is important for us. We will go home to play against Sri Lanka now, and we will prepare for it. We will have two home game in November and we are going to be ready for it.”

Consider yourselves warned, Group F.

Young legs

The Asia Cup Qualifiers is also an opportunity for teams to try and bring in promising young players, getting them into the system and grooming them for the future. We actually got to see a lot of these young guns in action in these first few games, too.

19-year-old Princepal Singh played some quality minutes for India, getting 3 points and 5 rebounds in 12 minutes of play. 20-year-old Mahmood Omar also saw playing time in Jordan’s rout of Sri Lanka, putting up 5 points and 5 boards in the process. Yang Hong Seok got his share of touches for Korea and the 22-year-old ended up with 7 points and 7 rebounds.

Even 16-year-old Derrick Michael Xzavierro went into the game for Indonesia, logging 2 rebounds in 2 minutes.

But the two biggest impact prospects of the first gameday were Lebanon’s Karim Zeinoun and Bahrain’s Muzamil Hamoda.

Zeinoun dropped timely threes for Lebanon and finished with 16 points, 3 rebounds, and 4 assists. The 20-year-old even celebrated with the occasional air guitar after knocking down his triples, which he had 3 of in total.

For Bahrain, Hamoda was one of the team’s top scoring options despite having turned 18 only last month. He finished with 12 points and 6 rebounds, but had to miss the last dramatic moments of action with what seemed like an injury.

 

If there is one major takeaway from these recent games, it’s that the future is bright for Asia Cup basketball.

FIBA