On February 18, the results of the 2022 Men's Basketball Asian Cup draw were released, and the 16 participating teams will be divided into 4 groups, and China and Chinese Taipei, South Korea, and Bahrain are all divided into Group B.
The most powerful Australia was in Group A, Group C was in the Death Group for Japan and Iran, and Group D was New Zealand and the Philippines.
The restructured Asian Cup hit the 2023 Basketball World Cup, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics were postponed due to the epidemic, which has not been held since 2017 and only resumed this year;
Therefore, this will be the Chinese men's basketball team to compete in 5 years.
Considering that the Chinese men's basketball team has been unsuccessful in the World Cup, Olympic Qualifiers and Defeats in the past few years, and is facing the tasks of the World Cup Qualifiers and the Asian Games Basketball Project this summer, the pressure on everyone can be imagined.
In any case, from July 12 to 24, Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, the Chinese men's basketball team will face pressure and meet the challenge.
Editor-in-chief | Porcelain Responsible editor| Wangwang Visual | Caixin
The timing of this Asian Cup has been full of twists and turns.
The original schedule was from August 3 to 15, 2021, but the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games were postponed to 2021, and the organizers postponed it to August 17-29, 2021 to avoid a race crash;
Later, due to the impact of the epidemic, it was postponed again to July 12-24, 2022.
The Men's Basketball Asian Cup was founded in 1960 and was originally directly related to whether Asian teams could participate in the Olympic Games and world cup qualifications, but it was no longer related after FIBA completed its restructuring in 2017.
The Chinese men's basketball team first participated in the competition in 1975, and so far it has participated 22 times, 19 times on the podium, and the glorious history of 16 championships is far more than any opponent - the Philippines, ranked second, has only 5 times.
However, the most recent victory of the Chinese men's basketball team dates back to the one held in Changsha in front of their home in 2015, when it was still called the Asian Championship, led by Gong Luming, and the final won the championship of the Southeast Asian powerhouse Philippines 78:67, which brought them out of the slump - the 2013 Asian Championship was only ranked 5th.
The Chinese men's basketball team's victory not only completed its self-redemption, but also qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
It was also this time that 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.
In 2017, 16 teams competed in Lebanon, of which Australia and New Zealand participated for the first time, and the pattern was completely changed.
The final was Australia's first victory over Traditional Asian powerhouse Iran 79:56, while South Korea finished third with a 80:71 victory over New Zealand.
At that time, the Chinese men's basketball team just opened the red and blue double national team mode, Du Feng, who coached the Chinese men's basketball team, led the team to participate, and the team led by Guo Allen and Zhou Peng, who lacked the core Yi Jianlian who was absent due to injury, directly missed the group top spot, and only after the rematch was promoted to the knockout stage;
The first match of the knockout round was directly defeated to Australia 71:97, and then in the qualifying round, it defeated Jordan and Lebanon to finish fifth.
After 5 years, China once again participated in the Men's Basketball Asian Cup and once again faced great pressure.
The format of this tournament is still the group leader directly to advance to the knockout stage, and the 2nd and 3rd places in the group need to cross-knockout with the 2nd and 3rd groups in the other half of the region, and the winner wins the other 4 knockout places to form the top 8 competition;
This was followed by quarter-finals, semi-finals, finals and third-place battles.
If you only look at the opponents in the group stage, China's chances of this tournament are better than the previous one, and it is possible to win the first place in the group.
The strength of Chinese Taipei and Bahrain in the same group is obviously different, only South Korea can create trouble, but in terms of their competitiveness that has not been outstanding in recent years, China is more likely to win.
The same group between China and South Korea is likely to make the Chinese men's basketball team win the first place in the group, and then the knockout stage may dream back to 2015.
That tournament was also the same group between China and South Korea, the second game of the group stage, the Chinese men's basketball team, which was once 20 points behind, completed a stunning reversal, And Guo Allen's last-minute counterattack and wonderful pass helped the team win; this battle also became Zhou Qi's god battle in the national team, the 19-year-old he shot a team-high 21 points on 9 of 14 shots and contributed 8 rebounds and 2 blocks.
If the Chinese men's basketball team wins the first place in the group stage and seizes the opportunity in the first game of the knockout round – the opponent is the winner of Group 2 of Group D and Group C 3, possibly the Philippines - then it is very likely that it will face Australia in the semifinals.
5 years ago, the Chinese men's basketball team, which basically participated in the main lineup of half of the national team, lost to the opponent by a big score, this time, if they come back, if they encounter an opponent again, they will inevitably charge with all their strength, whether they win or lose is a good opportunity to learn.
However, it should be added that the Chinese men's basketball team is facing heavy competition tasks before and after the Asian Cup, which may affect the adjustment of the Asian Cup lineup.
According to the schedule, the Chinese men's basketball team will play two 2023 Basketball World Cup qualifiers with Australia and Chinese Taipei from June to July, of which 3 games are in June but the specific time is undecided, and 1 game is on July 3.
In view of China's epidemic prevention policy, these games may still be on the road, and the journey is inevitable;
After that, a short break is this Asian Cup;
Finally, the Chinese men's basketball team that returned to China to quarantine will participate in the championship of the basketball program of the Hangzhou Asian Games from September 16 to 24.
In view of such frequent competitions and long isolation, it is not excluded that the Chinese men's basketball team will make appropriate trade-offs and adjust the lineup to better ensure that they will win the Asian Games gold medal at home - if they do not participate in the Asian Cup with the strongest lineup, then the pressure to break through is even greater.
epilogue
Today's men's basketball Asian Cup is no longer related to the promotion of the World Series, and perhaps many participating teams will not send the strongest lineup, but it is still a great training and learning opportunity for the Chinese men's basketball team - in these 3 years, the boys have not participated in many international competitions.
For this Asian Cup, head coach Du Feng 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. ”
Copyright Notice: The text is mainly from "Tencent CBA" and slightly modified, the original title is "The real challenge of the Chinese men's basketball team is coming", the original author iron king; the picture is from the screenshot of the page of fiba.basketball. If you have any doubts about copyright, please deal with it immediately, and if other media or self-media need to reprint, please communicate in advance.
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