Young players who could not have imagined before the start of this summer are active, and the Japan men’s basketball team is growing.
Yuki Kawamura, one of the players who made great strides in this summer’s series of races
The men’s basketball team led by head coach Tom Horvath (HC) started after a crushing defeat to China in the World Cup qualifiers last November. During the summer off-season, they energetically held training camps and played 11 matches in total, including 4 World Cup qualifying matches, 5 Asian Cup matches, and 2 international warm-up matches against Iran. The team is working. On August 30, ahead of the World Cup qualifier against Kazakhstan, HC Horvath said:
“At first, I was worried about how things would turn out, but now the strength of the team has improved more than I expected.
HC Horvath, who led the women’s team to a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics, is building a team with the same tactic of “small ball” against men who don’t have size as women. It is a way of fighting in which everyone attacks from 5 outs and mainly 3 points. To do that, we need to create good spacing, and we are building a balance between 2 and 3 points paint attacks.
Under such circumstances, he understood this tactic and drew a growth curve that even Horvath HC said “more than I imagined” and gained playing time. Yutaka Yoshii (196 cm / 24 years old / Alvark Tokyo), Soichiro Inoue (201 cm / 23 years old / Sun Rockers Shibuya), Yuki Kawamura (172 cm / 21 years old / Yokohama B Corsairs) and others.
NBA player Yuta Watanabe, who participated in this summer’s national team activities, said, “The current Japanese national team has grown so much that not a single player has been selected as a member,” the competition is so fierce.
Yutaka Yoshii is a player who seized the opportunity to stand out due to an inside injury at the end of last season. In the Quarterfinal match against Shimane Susanoo Magic, he showed his physical strength and defended tough on the inside, showing off his 3-point shooting ability. Even in the Japanese national team, he shows tenacity in his defense, which he does not mind contacting the center team of each country.
Although he was selected as a candidate for the U19 World Cup when he was a high school student at Osaka Gakuin, his potential was ahead of him as a player known to those in the know nationwide. At Osaka Gakuin University, he was selected as a student representative from the early spring of his freshman year, and he gained strength through tours to South Korea and other events. The head coach at the time, Yasushi Higa, said, “Yoshii has a strong body and shooting power, so he will definitely rise to the top in the future.” .
However, at that time Yoshii was a player who could not come up with any words at all, even if he was interviewed. Even now, he still examines his words carefully, but he has come to feel a strong will in every part of his words. Yoshii says that what has changed since then is “experience and confidence.”
“When I was first selected as a student representative, I couldn’t do anything, but from there I continued to build up experience. I was able to defend against national players with the clash that I am good at.So all I had to do was show that confidence in the game.The experience of continuing to play even if I failed became my core. It’s been a long time, so I’m still confident, but now I’m getting a solid confidence.”
