Japanese U18 Team for the Albert Schweitzer Tournament

The Japan Basketball Association has announced the Under 18 national team that will participate in the 27th Albert Schweitzer Tournament that will be held in Mannheim / Viernheim Germany from April 19 – 26, 2014. Tatsuyuki Hayashi of Minokamo University will coach the team.
Ryosuke Motomura
Tomoya Hata
Taiga Watanabe
Myuji Tsuruta
Ryogo Sumino
Rai Tomita
Shota Tsuyama
Kenta Hamada
Yutaro Hayashi
Hayato Maki
Rui Hachimura
Gen Hiraiwa

Japan is preparing for the 2014 FIBA U18 Tournament in Doha, Qatar dated: August 19 – 28. Rui Hachimura of Mesei University alongside Hayato Maki and Gen Hiraiwa were from the U16 team that finished third in last year’s FIBA Asia U16 tournament as they were elevated from the U17 team due to their exceptional performance from last year and in the spring training camp.

Japan is in Group B alongside Germany, Turkey and Slovenia. The complete groupings are:

A (GBG-Halle Mannheim): Serbia, Argentina, England, Sweden
B (GBG-Halle Mannheim): Germany, Turkey, Slovenia, Japan
C (Waldsporthalle Viernheim): USA, France, Ukraine, Chile
D (Waldsporthalle Viernheim): Spain, Italy, China, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Albert Schweitzer Tournament is a biennial junior tournament played in Mannheim, Germany, that started in Dec 1958. Formerly a U19 tournament, the age-limit went down to U18 by mid 1970s. It is believed the most important international tournament at its age-level.

JBA names Aoyama’s Kenji Hasegawa as coach of the national team

The Japan Basketball Association (JBA) has announced that Kenji Hasegawa, the head coach of Aoyama Gakuin’s men’s basketball program will take over as the national team’s head coach. Hasegawa will take over the vacated position of Aishin Mikawa Seahorses’ Kimikazu Suzuki. Suzuki was not retained after disappointing results from last year’s FIBA Asia Men’s competition held in Manila despite being given a year and a half to train the team.

Hasegawa aged 54 has no previous experience coaching in Japan’s professional basketball circuits,  namely the National Basketball League (NBL) which is the successor of the re-branded JBL. The Basketball Japan League (BJ-League) and the NBL D-League that succeeded the re-branded JBL2.

Hasegawa’s coaching as far as FIBA goes is the 2007 World University Games featuring Toyota’s Kosuke Takeuchi and Joji Takeuchi from Hitachi on which marked a semi-finals appearance. Last year in the 2013 Emperor’s Cup, Aoyama lead by Daiki Tanaka beat Levanga Hokkaido to mark their notable semi-finals appearance.

The JBA is under pressure from FIBA, the world’s governing body of basketball to enact reforms within the Japanese basketball professional leagues and fix the internal matters. FIBA Secretary General Patrick Baumann on his  recent visit earlier this year, expressed concerns over the men’s team performance in the international stage despite hosting the 2006 FIBA World Championship. After finishing 9th in last year’s FIBA Asia, Japan did not qualify for this year’s FIBA World Cup of Basketball. This has endangered the automatic qualification of both men and women’s team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics basketball tournament.

With Hasegawa in charge and is widely reputed for developing and training players, Japan hopes for a medal finish in this year’s Asian Games to be held in Incheon,  South Korea in September where Iran, the Republic of the Philippines and host South Korea that finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively from last year’s FIBA Asia tournament are participating. Hasegawa will spearhead the development and training of young players for the impending change of FIBA’s  continental qualifications starting in 2017. Japan is hoping to qualify for the next World Cup in 2019 and solidify their bid for an automatic berth in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that has traditionally been set for the host.