The Korean basketball team, led by head coach Ahn Joon-ho, lost to Japan by 80-88 and eight points in the second round of the Softbank Cup at Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan, on the 7th. With this, Korea finished the second consecutive game between Korea and Japan with one win and one loss. South Korea came from behind to win 85-84 in the first game held at the same venue on the 5th.
The result is encouraging for Korean basketball, which has been mired in the worst slump ever. At the Hangzhou Asian Games in September last year, Korea ranked seventh, the worst ever, behind China and Japan, which advanced to the second tier. Korea is ranked 50th in the FIBA world, 24 places below Japan (26th), the strongest team in Asia. Moreover, Japan has formed the best team ahead of Korea's participation in the Paris Olympics this month, and is considered to be far ahead of Korea.
Japan won the berth to the finals of the Paris Olympics on its own. This year's event marked the beginning of the Olympics. In contrast, Korea has not made it to the finals of the Olympics since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Worse yet, Korea only trained for four days and boarded the plane for Japan not long after the KBL season ended. Some basketball players expressed concern, saying, "Korea may suffer a disgrace in this year's event. It would be a relief if we don't lose more than 30 points."
However, contrary to expectations, Korea displayed performance on par with Japan. Hachimura Rui (LA Lakers) and Watanabe Yuta (Mempsis), Japan's most famous players in the National Basketball Association, sat on the bench in both games, but the Korean team was still strong as representatives of the Korean league and naturalized players who have consistently aligned themselves since last month were both in the game, but Korea did not lose ground and engaged in a slugfest. Korea put a damper on Japan's plan to mark the opening ceremony of the Olympics with a big victory. The Japanese players looked perplexed due to their strong performance.
The secret is the drastic generational change and mercenary skills implemented by coach Ahn Joon-ho. Coach Ahn, who returned to the field in 13 years as the new head coach of the national team in January, said, "Although I am not a little old, I am proud that I play 'young basketball'. The trend is fast these days, and we will speed up the transition of the offense and defense system further," and made a drastic generational change. Coach Ahn, who was praised for his excellent "eye on players" and his ability to use them in the right place, first selected a large number of "young blood" in his early and mid-20s to play a key role.
The national team led by Ahn has transformed into a different team than before. Australia showed a good performance of losing 71-85 in an away match, which was Ahn's debut match for the national team and the first Group A qualifying match for the Asian Cup. Australia is the strongest team in Asia as it ranks fifth in the world. The team was expected to be completely defeated, but Korea rather led the team by 33-20 and 13 points until about three minutes before the end of the second quarter. It crushed Thailand (91st) 96-62 in the second match. 동행복권파워볼
In this year's event, Ahn formed a team consisting of young players aged 24 on average without naturalized players. Among the 12, half of the players were born in the 2000s, and five of the remaining six were also born in 1999. The "young Ahn Jun-ho team" has emerged as Korea's next-generation ace, with guard Lee Jung-hyun (Sono), Yoo Ki-sang (LG), and center Lee Won-seok (Samsung). Most of them are "young blood" that Ahn discovered and selected for the national team. "I won because coach Seo Dong-cheol and his players did their best," Ahn said in a telephone interview.