Before the quarter-finals, the Chinese women's basketball team qualified as a seeded team with 3 wins and the top spot in the group; Japan was 2 wins and 1 loss, and the group stage lost to the United States without suspense, while the current Chinese women's basketball team stopped in the top 8, and Japan, which reached the final, has gone all out to attack the gold medal...
Responsible Editor | Porcelain Visual design | Cherry blossoms
On July 27, the host Japan women's basketball team premiered at the Saitama Super Arena, a slightly surprising result: Japan 74:70 France, a 4-point advantage to pull down The Second Place France in Europe; and even the reason for the surprising results of the game can be found in the court, Japan's three-point shot is 11 of 27, France only has a pitiful 19 shots of 4.
In the eyes of any professional, the feel of the outside line is always cold and hot, up and down.
In the post-match press conference, Japanese women's basketball head coach Tom Hovasser sat side by side with center Masashi Takada – at this point, everyone no longer thinks about what is special about this victory, after all, whether they have watched the live broadcast or not, everyone will take it for granted that Japan's home advantage is unquestionable - there are always reasons off the court; besides, this French women's basketball team is only the second in Europe, not the United States, and it is not the number one favorite of the Olympic champions.
But Hovasser, at this moment, still made the media reporters at the scene secretly spit out their tongues.
"My goal is still to win the gold medal," Hovasser said firmly, "and I know a lot of people outside our team are skeptics." But when I took over the job in 5 years, I said in my first press conference: I want to win the gold medal, I want to fight for the championship with the United States. “
At this time, many media reporters may be sneering; their sneers point not only to the future of Japan, but also to Tom Hovasser's past.
Tom Hovasser is a native of white America, born in Durango, Codorado, 2.03 meters tall, he plays as a small forward on the court, his career is difficult to say successful, and even directly said to be a failure:
Studied at Pennsylvania State for 4 years, 4 years of NCAA playing experience averaged 14.7 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game, not good or bad, 1989 college graduation was directly despised by the general managers of the NBA, however, in the 1994-1995 season he still played 2 NBA games for the Atlanta Hawks, a total of 4 minutes of playing time, 0 points, 0 rebounds, 0 assists, 0 blocks, 1 steal, 1 foul, if expressed in a more dark humor, is a great honor to play with the great Reggie Miller, Carl Malone, John Stockton was the opponent, with All-Star Mark Jackson, Del Davis, Antonio Davis, Rick Schmitz, and Jeff Honasek as opponents; but not because the Atlanta Hawks were a garbage team at the time, and Tom Hovaser could only appear during garbage time.
In short, his NBA career has been full of sarcasm.
Similar to many Americans who are unhappy on the basketball court in the United States, Hovassy can only seek opportunities to develop overseas, to play in the lower leagues, first Portugal, then to Japan, in addition to the only 2 4-minute NBA experience in Atlanta, but also tried the semi-professional CBA (USA) Pittsburgh piranha, but the main experience is still in Japan.
At that time, Japan was 2 top basketball leagues, he played for the JBL's Tokyo Pacers (now Tokyo Lightning) and the NBL's Kawasaki Ray Yong, and later, these two teams were merged into the current B League, but no matter how the league was divided and combined, and no matter how foreign aid was in charge, Hovasser did not have much to brag about in Japan.
However, he has gained great gains in other ways, one is to be fluent in Japanese, the other is that his child was born in Japan, and the third is that here he finds that his best job is not to play, but to coach.
Tom Hovasser's coaching career began in the 2010–2011 season, with the Chiba Sunflowers of the Japan Women's Basketball League WJBL, beginning with assistant coaching, and in the 2016-2017 season, he led the girls to a record of 24 wins and 0 losses and won the championship.
During this period, he also returned to the United States in the 2012-2013 season as an assistant coach for phoenix Mercury in the WNBA.
At the same time, he is also the assistant coach of the Japanese women's basketball team.
According to the information I can find so far, he officially confirmed that he will be the head coach of the Japanese women's basketball team on January 23, 2017, and since he claimed at the tokyo 2020 Olympic debut that the goal was publicly proposed to be the gold medal at the first media conference of the year, it should have been said - although so far I have not checked the detailed news, and it is not what he said "5 years ago":
At that time, the Japan Women's Basketball League WJBL was still in progress, and his official appointment was postponed to April 2017, 4 years and 4 months - so he should be precisely stated as "4 years ago".
Now, pulling back the time to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, still making its debut, he continued:
"That's why we had to win Game 1 with a completely different system than Rio de Janeiro. France is the no. 2 team in Europe, Nigeria is the African champion, and the United States is the best in the world. “
He and he coached the Japanese women's basketball team for 4 years and 4 months, and their goal was to beat the best teams in the world.
"They thought I was crazy," Hovasser continued, "and now, they don't think I'm crazy anymore." If we continue with this level of energy and determination, we will have reasonable shots. “
However, his formulation is still problematic:
When he spoke in fluent Japanese at a press conference, most people still thought he was crazy.
All his ideas are the thinking of a madman; and the Japanese Basketball Association hired him as the head coach of the Japanese women's basketball team and determined a new direction and goal, which is also the thinking of a madman.
At that time, the chairman of the Japanese Basketball Association was Hiroko Miya, she was not from basketball, but a member of the Japanese women's volleyball team, and the Chinese women's volleyball team during the 5 consecutive championship period had a fierce confrontation, Lang Ping, Zhang Rongfang, Sun Jinfang, Chen Zhaodi and other women's volleyball elders should be impressed, she was only 2 years and 6 months away from the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games (originally planned to hold the opening ceremony on July 24, 2020, when there was no new crown epidemic) only 2 years and 6 months to change the coach, the fundamental reason is to hope that Hovasser can guide the Japanese women's basketball team to make a big turn and take the Japanese women's basketball team's own - Japanese roads.
And what she calls the Japanese road, specifically, can still win without physical superiority - soon in Indonesia, the 2017 Women's Basketball Asian Cup, and the 2018 Women's Basketball World Cup, with limited time and great risks.
Still just when he announced his appointment as head coach of the Japanese women's basketball team, Hovasser responded to the expectations raised by Hiroko Miya on behalf of the Japan Basketball Association, "Japanese players are small, but they are fast, and their sense of teamwork is better than that of all other countries." ”
"We need to build a defence and that's important. Offense, we intend to speed up the pace, a lot of changes, the balance of the inside and outside lines is also important. ”
Four years ago, Hovasser had such self-confidence, mainly because of the innate advantages of Japanese women, "As a player and coach, I have been to many places in the world, but compared to Japanese women, I have never seen any more focused than them." 」 I don't care which country you're from, Japanese women are the hardest working women I've ever met. ”
Three months later, in April 2017, Tom Hovasser officially took office, the details of the contract have not been disclosed, only that the goal is the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
The information that can be found now is that the technical director of the Japan Basketball Association, Tomotomo Higashino, said on behalf of the Japan Basketball Association at that time, and there is no guarantee that the Japanese women's basketball team will get the Olympic medal at home, because they have performed too well in recent years and have their own position in the international basketball map, so that other countries have more research on them and are more targeted, "In order to achieve better results in Japanese basketball, we are required to make changes... We believe he is the most suitable person to lead this team. ”
At this time, the Japanese women's basketball team, at this time, to make such a huge change, it takes courage: it has dominated the Asian Cup for 4 consecutive times; the Rio Olympic Games group stage victory over Brazil, the narrow victory over Belarus, the defeat of the 2012 London Olympic Games runner-up France, and the Australian women's basketball team are difficult to score, and finally rank 8th.
Then, the following year, very suddenly, for the first time, foreigners were put in charge of the coach, in order to —
Turn around, turn
……
Continued | Look, crazy three-pointers
Pull back the clock again, back to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics women's basketball arena.
The Japanese debut in Group B won a small victory over France by 4 points, the head coach amplified the words after the game, few people paid attention at the time, even if they heard it, they might think that he was really crazy, and then, Japan lost to the United States 69:86 to confirm its crazy words, fortunately, then beat Nigeria 102:83, and the group qualified.
At this time, the Japanese women's basketball team still did not get much attention, and even far less than the East Asian neighbor and long-term opponent - the Chinese women's basketball team won all three games in the unexpected group stage, and for the first time since participating in the Olympic Games, it qualified as the top of the group and became the seed team in the knockout stage, which caused great concern at home and abroad.
After the quarter-finals, the trend between China and Japan was so different:
Facing Serbia, China once led nearly two figures in the third quarter but collapsed in the last quarter, scoring only 12 points in a single quarter while letting the opponent get 28 points, and finally lost 70:77, which stopped;
Japan faced China's defeated Belgium, belgium, which was once 12 points behind in the first quarter, maintained its lead from the second quarter, and once the gap was widened, but Japan just did not give up, chased ah, chased to the end of only 2 points, and only 15.3 seconds left from the end of the game, a three-point shot killed the opponent.
86:85 fate, it can be said that Japan was lucky to beat Belgium - who dares to say that the three-point shot must be thrown?
As a result, the semi-finals once again met France, which they defeated, and still did not get much attention before the start, and even the Japanese media and the websites of the international league did not give them much coverage, saying that they would encounter strong opponents, and if they won, they would have the opportunity to compete for olympic medals for the first time - from the perspective of the competition process, it is true.
Unexpectedly, the result was 87:71, but it was a seemingly weak and petite Japanese who abused the mighty and tall opponent; the news soon shocked the world, but also shocked the Chinese fans, and no one thought that Hovasser was crazy at this time - do not look at it, do not know, a look of shock:
The Japanese women's basketball team averaged 83.6 points per game, tied for No. 1 in the scoring list with the United States;
44.2% shooting percentage is only 6th, averaging 67.8 shots per game is only 5th, shooting 30.0 is only 4th, and all the mysteries on the offensive end are in - three-point shots;
The Japanese women's basketball team has a three-point shooting rate of 40.9%, averaging 13.8 shots per game and hitting 13.0 goals, a total of 159 shots and 65 shots, which is not only the first place, but also makes other teams unattainable, including the United States and China.
So, when the average rebound of the Japanese women's basketball team is only 11th in 12 teams, 12th in blocks, 8th in steals, and 5th in assists... At that time, all their disadvantages were masked by non-stop, wide-ranging running:
It was the non-stop, wide-ranging running that dragged down the opponent's body, and he found a lot of shooting opportunities on the outside, and many scenes were where the big man of France had to pull to the outside to defend Japan's small man, big and small, tired of running; then, hit hard by three-pointers.
The opponent of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics debut is France, and if the Japanese women's basketball team has a full dominance of three-pointers, then the semi-final re-battle against France's three-pointers continues to be 11 of 22, while France only has 7 of 24, or is it accidental?
Obviously, the answer is no.
Machida's 18 assists in a single game is the best result of his teammates running wildly, which is proof.
Continued Supplement | Conspiracy and conspiracy
As usual, a small number of Chinese self-media or the so-called big V believe that the Japanese women's basketball team used the identity of the host in the draw of the knockout stage, otherwise, how could it be so clever against Belgium? But Tom Hovasser does not think so, on the contrary, he believes that if it were not for the impact of the new crown epidemic and the lack of spectators in the "home of Japan", the Japanese women's basketball team may play better.
"Obviously, they're going to give us a huge boost."
If there is a conspiracy and can be verified, it is that the goal of the Japanese women's basketball team in these years has always been the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, for example, in the key 2018, the Japanese women's basketball training team has as many as 52 people, and the internal is a cruel competition between each other, and then, divided into 2 teams, the A team composed of elite players participates in the Women's Basketball World Cup, and the remaining B team with young players participates in the Asian Games.
This is a conspiracy.
The 2019 Basketball World Cup; the Chinese men's basketball team did the same; this year's 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games series warm-up matches, even including the Asian Cup, the Japanese men's basketball team also did the same.
Copyright Notice: Original manuscript of "East Asian Premier League", author: Pan Pan. Image from a screenshot of the web at 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.