JPN - Olympic sized test for dangerous Japan

WUHAN (FIBA Asia Championship) – Japan may have finished only 10th at the 2009 FIBA Asia Championship, but under new coach Tom Wisman they are a different unit at the 2011 version in Wuhan, and United Arab Emirates (UAE) coach Zoran Zupcevic is impressed.

“I like the way Japan plays. They try to play fast basketball, they try to be aggressive, they use what they have very well,” Wisman said after his team fell 101-61 to the 2011 East Asian Championship silver medallists on Day 1 of the Second Round.

“The level they play at, the style they play, I don’t think any other team in the championship can feel comfortable with that. I believe they are always dangerous.”

Japan, 4-0 in the tournament, face their biggest tests of the tournament so far over the next two days when they play a resurgent Philippines and the undefeated China.

Wisman believes his team’s comprehensive display against UAE helped greatly in the preparation for the upcoming challenges.

“We were able to manage our playing time today, no one played more than 20 minutes. This tournament is like three, three day series. You have to be good on the second and third days.

"We have the Philippines tomorrow and China on the third day, so how we managed that today was important to us.”

So far Japan have looked very much like a team capable of upsetting Asian powerhouses China and Iran, and at the very least playing off for bronze and a place at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

But questions still remain about their reputed lack of interior toughness.

“We have played some teams with some size,” Wisman said. “We have been working hard with our bigs on playing with physicality, and obviously the test of that is coming up.

“Philippines have some size inside, but they’re not really that much bigger than us. China is, so we have got to deal with that physicality issue while at the same time maintaining our style of play,” the American-Australian coach added.

“We have got to attack and run and play in the full court, we don’t want to get into half court battles with teams that are bigger and more physical than us.”

When they are out and running, Japan are as talented as any team in the tournament, but can it carry them all the way to gold and a place at the London Olympics?

“The question now is how far,” Zupcevic said. “China and Iran are there, and there is always history that goes with those games.

"I cannot say what (Japan’s) chances are, but I can say they will be very dangerous and nobody can take them lightly.”

Paulo Kennedy

FIBA