It was late in February that the Japanese Basketball Association’s committee for youth basketball named the 26 player pool consisting of the men’s national team that was set to compete for the 2015 FIBA Asia U16 tournament. At that time, Japan was under the FIBA ban for domestic issues regarding its organization and the murky disposition of two Japan’s top basketball leagues.
Former Levanga Hokkaido head coach Torsten Loibl was named head coach and the man with the reputation for developing structure within the youth level got to work despite no assurances that Japan will be even allowed to field a team when the tournament starts.
Fast forward a couple of months and things have changed, FIBA lifted the ban on Japan and the country could participate in the tournaments again. While the JBA was reforming itself, the task force maintained the training program for the U16 men’s team as coach Loibl intended to have his boys play the structured basketball of euro ball.
After several weeks of tryouts and joint training, the Loibl alongside the JBA named the thirteen man squad set to train in preparation for the 2015 FIBA Asia U16 tournament for men later this month.
Reo Shimajiri (Konan HS)
Keisuke Mimori (Sapporo Nihon HS)
Taiga Kagitomi (Fukuoka University HS)
Yudai Nishida (Fukuoka University HS)
Soichiro Inoue (Fukuoka University HS)
Seiya Takahara (Tsuchiura Nihon University HS)
Rei Ito (Hirakikokorozashi INTL HS)
Kazuki Miyamoto (Tokogakuen HS)
Kohei Tsuneta (Masatomo Fukaya HS)
Aren Hachimura (Mesei HS)
Ryo Kobayashi (Tokogakuen HS)
Daiki Tsuchiya (Kurashiki Tamashima HS)
Syuki Nakata (Fukuoka Tatsunishi HS)
Leading the team is Fukuoka HS front-court of Inoue, Nishid and Kagitomi. Joining them are skilled big men Mimori of Sapporo alongside Tokogakuen’s Miyamoto and versatile freshman Aren Hachimura, whose older brother Rui Hachimura went on to star for the 2013 U16 and 2014 U17 national teams of Japan and was later called to participate to train with Japan’s senior national team.
Most of the team are guards that will assume a winger forward’s role lead by Tokogakuen’s scoring guard Ryo Kobayashi.
Under Torsten, the fledgling big men are trained with fundamentals from footwork to conditioning while also learning coordination from ball handling to shooting from the outside. The guards are taught to press on defense and recognize gaps within the defense to cut or position themselves for an open shot.
Thirteen players are called up as final as insurance for the probability of injury. Two more training camps are set for the thirteen young men as the final twelve man will be named after the last training camp in October 25.
The 2015 edition of the FIBA Asia Men’s U16 tournament was supposedly set to be hosted in Bangalore, India from July 2 to 12, 2015 but troubles with the country’s federation prompted FIBA to indefinitely postpone the tournament and find a willing host. Indonesia stepped up to host the event and the tournament is set for the city of Semarang from October 29 to November 7. Top three finishers will play in next year’s FIBA U17 World Championships for Men.
Shonen Hoops 