Korea - Egis Boss Huh to Manage Korea

From www.koreatimes.co.kr
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The Korea Basketball Association's (KBA) technical committee named KCC Egis head coach Huh Jae the new boss of Korea's national basketball team on Thursday.

The KBA was under pressure to name a new head coach as soon as possible with the preliminaries of the International Basketbal Federation (FIBA) Asia Championship coming up from June 8 to 14 in Japan.

The position had been vacant for some time after former head coach Kim Nam-ki signed with the Daegu Orions in the Korean Basketball League (KBL).

The technical committee also considered Yoo Jae-hak of the Ulsan Mobis, who led his boys to the top of the KBL in the regular season, even though the Mobis team had been viewed as one of the league's weakest.

But the committee chose Huh for the job after the coach led Egis to a league championship -- the second ever for a third-ranked team.

``For now, we are giving him the authority of the national team for three competitions; the preliminaries of the FIBA Asia Championship, the Jones Cup Tournament and the FIBA Asia Championship,'' a KBA official told The Korea Times.

Huh will see his duties with the national team conflict his job with Egis this summer. The Jones Cup tournament is scheduled from July 18 to 26, while the KBL foreign player draft is held for three days from July 20.

``The import draft is only three days, and Egis also has other coaches to make the team's selections. The national team also has other assistant coaches. I can't guarantee that Huh will be there to guide the Korean team throughout the Jones Cup, but he will be with us.

``We need to talk with Huh and we are going to talk about that issue to make the best decision not only for Egis but also Korea,'' the official added

The technical committee will name the team's two remaining coaches, as well as its 12 players