CHN – Youth key to China’s Olympic dream

WUHAN (FIBA Asia Championship) – As expected, hosts China have made a dominant start to the FIBA Asia Championship in Wuhan, dispatching Philippines 75-60 following their destruction of Bahrain on opening night.

China made the Quarter-Finals at both the Athens and Beijing Olympics, establishing themselves as a genuine international threat.

Gone from those teams though is not only Yao Ming, but also valuable role players Nan Li, Menke Batere, Du Feng and injured swingman Wang Shipeng.

While veteran duo Liu Wei and Wang Zhizhi are still crucial to their country’s fortunes, more and more China is dependent on youth to help it return it to its Olympic glory days.

“It’s been like that since I got here. It was like that in both Turkey and in Guangzhou last summer,” said coach Bob Donewald, referring to the FIBA World Championship and Asian Games.

“We’re a bit of a mixed bag, we’ve got some guys who are kind of at the tail end of it, and we’ve got some young guys who are wide eyed and have never seen it before.”

Emerging 23-year-old superstar Yi Jianlian is naturally the standout leader of the youth brigade, but gradually Sun Yue is becoming an international star rather than a role player.

Yue has increased his minutes from 13 per game in 2006 to over 30 in Turkey last year, averaging double figures in points for the first time in a major tournament.

He was outstanding against the Philippines with 15 points on 3/4 shooting from long range and seven rebounds.
 
The injured Zhou Peng is another young gun to watch out for at the London Olympics should China qualify.

“He’s a young up-and-coming guy but he’s got a lot of experience, and so you get a lot of energy with his experience,” Donewald said.
 
“He’s 6’10, our best defender at the two, three or four position, and he’s figuring out his offensive game.”

Zhou played 17 minutes per game at the world championship, and the likes of Ding Jinhui, Su Wei and Yu Shulong were also asked to play increased roles, filling the gaps left by some of the departed veterans.

China took a hit as a result, winning just one game for the tournament.

In a promising sign though, they made Russia, Greece, Puerto Rico and bronze medallists Lithuania work for their victories.

Donewald is very hopeful this small backwards step will pay off and deliver his team a gold medal and a ticket to London.

“It’s the experience of last summer, even though some of those guys are young, being able to play against some of the best in the world last summer (is invaluable),” he said.

“Then getting the Asian Games gold medal, even though some of the main teams weren’t there with their main players, hopefully that will give them enough experience to help us deliver through again this year.”

Paulo Kennedy

FIBA