Japan national player pool for FIBA Asia 2015

Image courtesy of the JBA

As the popular saying goes “Basketball Never Stops”, so does Japan’s hopes to reach the 2016 Rio Olympics by competing in the upcoming FIBA Asia 2015 Qualifying Tournament (Sept. 23 – Oct. 3, 2015) to be held in Changsha – Hunan China.

With the recent FIBA ban being “partially” lifted that will allow the men and women’s team to compete in this year’s Olympic basketball qualifying tournament, the Japanese Basketball Association have unveiled today the players that will compose Japan’s national player pool for FIBA Asia 2015.

The players are:

Yuta Tabusa (Link Tochigi)

Atsuya Ota (Hamamatsu Phoenix)

Takumi Ishizaki (Mitsubishi)

Joji Takeuchi (Hitachi)

Kenta Hirose (Hitachi)

Keijuro Matsui (Toyota)

Takuya Kawamura (Ex-Wakayama)

Gaku Arao (Chiba Jets)

Takatoshi Furukawa (Link Tochigi)

Takahiro Kurihara (Toshiba)

Ryumo Ono (Chiba)

Hironori Watanabe (Link Tochigi)

Ryoma Hashimoto (Aishin)

Kosuke Kanamaru (Aishin)

Naoto Tsuji (Toshiba)

Yuki Mitsuhara (Hitachi)

Shigehiro Taguchi (Akita)

Makoto Hiejima (Aishin)

Naoya Kumagae (Link Tochigi)

Yuya Nagayoshi (Toshiba)

Daiki Tanaka (Toshiba)

Tenketsu Harimoto (Toyota)

Kengo Nomoto (Toshiba)

Yuki Togashi (Ex-Texas Legends)

Yuta Watanabe (George Washington)

Yudai Baba (Tsukubadai)

Rui Hachimura (Mesei)

 

Leading the pool is Kosuke Kanamaru, who won the NBL Japan Finals MVP to lead AIshin to the NBL championship last month. Players from Toyota include the sharpshooter Keijuro Matsui, the prolific guard Daiki Tanaka alongside and rising star Tenketsu Harimoto.

Returning to national team duties are Yuta Tabuse and Takuya Kawamura. Tabuse last played for Japan in the 2010 Asian Games while Kawamura was among the best five players awarded in the 2011 edition of FIBA Asia.

Missing is the other half of the Takeuchi twins. Kosuke Takeuchi is recovering from an injury and it leaves Hitachi’s Joji Takeuchi to help lead the team after their successful tandem in Japan’s bronze medal winning team last year in the Incheon Asian games.

Photo courtesy of FIBA

The pool also features Yuta Watanabe, who is entering his sophomore year in George Washington. Yuki Togashi, part of last year’s Asian games squad played for the Texas Legends in the NBA D-League. Rui Hachimura, who lead Mesei to two All Japan HS crowns will make his first call up to the senior national team after playing in the 2014 FIBA U17 world championships and the 2015 Jordan Brand Classic international game.

Part of Japan’s preparation for the FIBA Asia tournament will be the Atlas 8 National tournament (Jul. 27 – Aug. 1) in Suzhou China 2015 William Jones Cup in Taiwan (Aug. 29 – Sept. 06, 2015). In 2013, Japan finished 9^th in FIBA Asia that was held in Manila, Philippines.