The dark Korean basketball shot hope after a drastic generational change…”It’s a task to improve the height”

The South Korean men’s basketball team, which had been trapped in a dark tunnel for a while, did well in two warm-up matches against Japan and left hope.

The basketball team, led by head coach Ahn Joon-ho, returned home on the 8th after two away warm-up matches with the Japanese national team in Tokyo on the 5th and 7th.

South Korea won 85-84 in the first round, and lost 80-88 in the second round. 파워볼사이트

South Korea, ranked 50th in the FIBA rankings, was expected to be inferior to Japan (26th), 24 places higher than expected, but expressed its outlook as it played more than expected.

Recently, the trend of Korean basketball has not been good.

South Korea, which finished seventh, the worst performance ever at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, tried to change its head coach from Chu Il-seung to Ahn Joon-ho.

Coach Ahn, who declared a generational change, selected young players in their 20s with mobility, excluding a large number of veterans in their 30s while preparing for an exhibition match with Japan.

Young players such as Yoo Ki-sang, Park In-woong, Lee Won-seok, and Lee Doo-won, who have been consistently active in the league, joined the team, with an average age of 24 years. Byun Jun-hyung, born in 1996, was so young that he was the oldest on the list.

Players who had been supporting the national team, including Ra Gun-ah, Kim Jong-kyu and Kim Sun-hyung, were absent and the convocation training was only four days, raising concerns about their performance. In particular, Japan was evaluated to be far ahead of South Korea by forming the best members ahead of their participation in the Paris Olympics.

However, the younger Korea has shown strength in rapid transition to offense and defense and external capabilities. Notably, Lee Jung-hyun solidified his position as a key member of the national team by scoring 27 points, four rebounds, and four assists in the first game.

Next-generation big man Ha Yoon-ki also showed off his presence under the basket. In the first round match, Ha had the upper hand in the competition with a bigger and more powerful player than himself, and scored 15 points, the second most after Lee Jung-hyun.

Yoo Ki-sang, who just got his rookie ticket, showed his presence with 17 points in the second game, including five 3-pointers, even though he was selected for the senior national team for the first time.

It was not that there were no complementary points at all.

He was active in offense, but his teamwork was somewhat inadequate in defense. Notably, the national team, which was formed without a naturalized player, failed to block Josh Hawkinson, a naturalized player from Japan. As the team was inferior in height, it could not win even a fight under the basket with high probability.

South Korea, which felt both hopes and deficiencies for its performance in the two consecutive games against Japan, is preparing for the FIBA Asia Cup qualifying tournament in November in a more sobering manner.

If the association’s support, such as long-term and specific national team management plans, systems, and naturalized player recruitment, is supported at a time when excellent resources are secured, the dark age of Korean basketball is expected to end earlier than expected.

“We confirmed the spirit and determination of young players. As if to say that no individual player is better than a team, the players showed good teamwork and displayed good performance,” Ahn said. “However, it is urgent to foster tall players. We need to prepare preparations for naturalized players.”