Chinese expectations on the rise as Maher's message gets through

BEIJING (FIBA Women's World Championship/2015 FIBA Asia Women's Championship) - Currently in his second stint guiding China's women's national team, veteran coach Tom Maher has picked up bits and pieces of the local language along the way.

"I have the odd word," he said. "I can express 'go faster' or 'that's too slow' or 'defense'. I can say the basic stuff.

"But I mostly just rely on the interpreter when I'm working."

Whatever may be lost in translation, Maher's basketball messages are getting through as he fine-tunes a new generation of players that have one eye on this year's FIBA Asia Women's Championship (23 September-3 October) and the other on the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

For a man that has coached basketball the world over and enjoyed enormous success domestically and internationally, the Australian rates the 2008 Olympics as one of his fondest memories.

Just as he did with the Opals at the 2000 Games in Sydney, Maher had the honour of coaching another nation at its home Olympics, guiding China to a fourth-place finish in Beijing.

He then had another stop back in Australia's WNBL, extending his own record with an eighth championship in 2011, and coached a third Olympic host nation with Great Britain in 2012.

Following those Games, the opportunity arose to return to China and Maher jumped at it - although he had an enormous task in front of him.

The Chinese team was in a period of transition. Three-time Olympian Miao Lijie led a host of retirements after 2012, with just four players from London being part of the team that played at the following year's continental championship.

Needing to finish in the top three to qualify for the world championships, Maher called upon retired centre Chen Nan and some fellow veterans to get them over the line.

A number of youngsters, including Lu Wen, Cheng Feng and Hongpin Huang, were also added just weeks before the competition commenced.

"By the end of 2012, the established players were done and the ones that came in underneath them either weren't of the best quality or they were about to be done too," Maher recalls.

"It was a bit of a 'Dad's Army' kind of group and we were really terrible.

"We scrambled into third position to make the world championships, which was a relief.

Once the Asian champs were over, we had a total clean sweep. - Maher

With a new team, Maher was only cautiously optimistic about China's hopes at the 2014 FIBA Women's World Championship.

They ultimately finished sixth, knocking off Belarus and Serbia along the way.

"To have a team with nobody who had been to a world championships before and to come sixth was at the peak of my hopes," Maher said.

He is now busy preparing the side for the 2015 FIBA Asia Women's Championship which will take place in Wuhan, China in late September-early October.

Maher calls himself a "teacher-type coach" and enjoys taking time instilling his beliefs.

It's a luxury few national coaches enjoy, with players often flying in from professional commitments weeks or even days before major tournaments.

He has just completed a camp with two-thirds of his squad. Once a Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) qualifying event is over, he will then have access to all players right up to the continental championship.

Only the winning team in Wuhan will clinch a place for next year's Olympics and there are high expectations on Maher's team.

"The government have impressed upon us that they want to see China do well," he said. "The expectation from above is that we win it, and that's OK.

"To be quite frank, based on our performance in Turkey, we should be able to give it a shot."

Maher first laid eyes on the CBA in 2005 and believes the standard of basketball has "gone through the roof" in the decade since.

He loves the lifestyle and says national coaches are treated well and paid well, while working with world-class facilities.

The 62-year-old has encountered some difficulties, most commonly with what he says is a Chinese tendency to want to train longer and harder than the opposition.

"That might work if you're a marathon runner, but not if you want to do something dynamic," he said.

But he appears well settled in his adopted country, alongside his wife, former Opals captain Robyn Maher.

"You make the joke that it's either this or a real job, but I love it," he said.

"I love working here and I love eating here. Food and wine are my hobbies, so this is a wonderful place to be."

FIBA