The 2022 Men's Basketball Asian Cup draw ended today, and the 16 participating teams were divided into four groups, and the Chinese men's basketball team was divided into Group B with Chinese Taipei, South Korea and Bahrain. In July this year, the Chinese men's basketball team will fly to Jakarta, Indonesia to participate in this competition. This is the second time that the Chinese men's basketball team has participated in the competition after a gap of 5 years, and this time, the Chinese men's basketball team will also face challenges.
The Chinese men's basketball team competes again after 5 years
The 2022 Men's Basketball Asian Cup is determined to be held at a twist and turn.
Originally scheduled to be held on August 3-15, 2021, the Asian Cup was postponed to August 17-29 to avoid a collision with the Tokyo Olympic men's basketball team after a one-year postponement of the Tokyo Olympics. Later, due to the impact of the epidemic, the Asian Cup was postponed to 2022.
The Asian Cup is the first time fibab in the last five years that FIBA has held it. Due to the Hosting of the Basketball World Cup in 2019 and the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, the Men's Basketball Asian Cup has not been held since 2017, and has not resumed playing until now. Originally held in 1960, the Asian Cup was directly related to the ability of Asian teams to participate in the Olympic Games and the World Cup before FIBA was restructured. After the restructuring in 2017, the Asian Cup is no longer related to the promotion quota of the World Series.
The Chinese men's basketball team has participated in the first competition since 1975, and so far, the Chinese men's basketball team has participated in a total of 22 times and stood on the podium 19 times (winning the top three). Among them, the Chinese men's basketball team has won the championship 16 times, far more than any Asian team, and the Philippines, which ranks second in the number of championships, has only won the championship five times.
The last time the Chinese men's basketball team won the Asian Cup was in 2015, the tournament held in Changsha (then called the Asian Championship) at the doorstep of the family, Gong Luming led the new Chinese men's basketball team to win the championship again in the final, out of the downturn of the 2013 Asian Championship (5th), to achieve redemption, and also to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. In this competition, Zhou Qi, who represented the Chinese men's basketball team for the second time, performed amazingly, and Yi Jianlian played the role of a mainstay.
The last time the Chinese men's basketball team participated in the Asian Cup was in 2017. At that time, the Chinese men's basketball team opened the red and blue "double national team" model, and Du Feng, who coached the Chinese men's basketball team, led the team to participate in the Asian Cup. Missing the core team Yi Jianlian who was absent due to injury, the men's basketball blue team led by Guo Allen, Zhou Peng and others did not qualify for the first place in the group stage, and finally advanced to the knockout round through the rematch. However, in the first game of the knockout round, the men's basketball team lost to the powerful Australia (2017 Asian Cup champion) by a score of 71-97. After qualifying, the men's basketball team defeated Jordan and Lebanon to finish 5th.
Men's Basketball Asian Cup again touching Australia?
After 5 years, the Chinese men's basketball team will participate in the Asian Cup again, and it will also face a lot of pressure.
This Asian Cup is still the first direct promotion to the knockout stage in the group stage. The second and third places in the group will need to cross-play with the second and third places of the other half-division group (A2VSB3, B2VSA3, C2VSD3, D2VSC3), and the winner will receive the final four knockout spots. In the knockout rounds, the winner of the four matches advances to the semi-finals. The winner of the semi-finals decides the winner (the loser plays three or four places).
From the perspective of group opponents, the chance of the Chinese men's basketball team winning the first place in the group is not small. In the same group of opponents, basically only the old rival South Korean men's basketball team can create some trouble for the Chinese men's basketball team, and there is a significant gap between the strength of Chinese Taipei and Bahrain and the Chinese men's basketball team. Judging from the competitiveness of the Korean men's basketball team that has not been outstanding in recent years, the prospect of the Chinese men's basketball team beating the opponent and winning the first place in the group is more optimistic.
It is worth mentioning that this time with the Korean men's basketball team also let the Chinese men's basketball team "dream back to 2015". In the 2015 Asian Championship (the name of the Asian Cup at the time), the Chinese men's basketball team was in the same group as South Korea, and in the second game of the group stage, the Chinese men's basketball team completed a stunning reversal in the case of falling behind by 20 points, And Guo Allen's last-minute counterattack and wonderful pass helped the men's basketball team lock in victory, and this game also became Zhou Qi's "battle of the gods" in the national team. In the whole game, 19-year-old Zhou Qi shot a team-high 21 points on 9-of-14 shooting, and contributed 8 rebounds and 2 blocks.
In this Asian Cup, if the Chinese men's basketball team can seize the opportunity in the first game of the knockout round (the opponent is the winner of the second group of D and the third place of group C, possibly the Philippines), then the men's basketball team will also face Australia in the semifinals. Five years ago, the Chinese men's basketball team, which basically participated in the "half of the national team main lineup", lost to the opponent by a big score and did not qualify for the semifinals, this time, if the comeback Chinese men's basketball team encountered opponents again, it was bound to fully impact the powerful Australia and seize the great opportunity to play against the strong team.
However, one thing that needs to be mentioned is that the Chinese men's basketball team will face heavy competition tasks before and after the Asian Cup, which may also affect the adjustment of the Chinese men's basketball team to the Asian Cup lineup. According to the schedule, the Chinese men's basketball team will play four World Cup qualifiers (two each) with Australia and Chinese Taipei from June to July, three of which will be in June (the time of the game is not determined) and one in July (3). In view of China's epidemic prevention policy, the Chinese men's basketball team may still be on the road to participate in the World Preliminary Tournament this summer.
After the World Preliminary Round, the Chinese men's basketball team will take a break to start the Asian Cup. After the Asian Cup (ending on July 24), the Chinese men's basketball team, which returned to Quarantine, will also participate in the Hangzhou Asian Games on September 16-24. In view of such frequent matches this summer and the long quarantine after returning home, it is not excluded that the Chinese men's basketball team has made some trade-offs in these competitions and adjusted the lineup of participants, so as to better ensure that they can win the Asian Games gold medal at home. If you do not participate in the Asian Cup with the strongest lineup, then the breakthrough pressure of the Chinese men's basketball team will also be greatly increased.
epilogue
Today's Asian Cup is no longer related to the promotion quota of the World Series, and the participating teams may not send the strongest teams to compete. But for the Chinese men's basketball team, under the epidemic, this is still a great opportunity for training and learning. After all, in the three years since the outbreak of the epidemic, the Chinese men's basketball team has not experienced many games.
For this Asian Cup, Du Feng, head coach of the Chinese men's basketball team, has made his attitude clear: "The Chinese men's basketball team is about to usher in another test and experience. With the addition of Australia and New Zealand, Asian basketball is more intense than ever. For us, we must strive to make progress with a fuller attitude and faith, and face the challenge without fear and fearlessness. And how did the Chinese men's basketball team finally perform? In July, we cheered and witnessed together.