Rising players will top Asia, coach says
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China head coach Bob Donewald Jr is confident the national team's next generation of players will be unstoppable at November's Asian Games after impressive showings in World Championship games against big teams like Greece and Russia.
China's dominance in Asia waned when NBA All-star center Yao Ming went down with a foot injury last year. The side's plight was highlighted by a humiliating loss to Iran in the 2009 Asian Championship final.
Donewald, who took the national team job four months ago and called in a number of new faces as part of a squad reshuffle, believes this young team will be the best in Asia and also the future of Chinese basketball.
"Games like today will make us better," the American coach said after China's 89-80 loss to Russia on Wednesday. "There is no team in Asia that is able to compete with such a power like Russia, but we almost did it."
China managed to keep the game against the 2007 European champion close for the most of the four quarters and even led 75-73 with four minutes to go.
However, the young players made a number of turnovers and bad shots in the final minutes, allowing Russia to go on a 16-5 run to seal the win.
"We are young and ran out of gas in the last minutes. But, without a doubt, we can learn from these experiences and bring these to the table at the Asian Games."
Against Russia, Donewald played Guo Ailun, 17, and Yu Shulong, 20. Guo had two points and two assists in eight minutes, while Yu added five points in four minutes on the court.
Among the starters, Sun Yue, the former LA Lakers guard, is 23. New team leader and Washington Wizards forward Yi Jianlian is also 23, and sharpshooter Wang Shipeng is 27.
"We needed to speed up so I put on Guo and Yu," the coach said. "They are the young backup point guards of the team. They did a very good job and this is a very good experience for them."
