Japan's selection of tall players comes with long-term view in mind

JAKARTA (2015 FIBA Asia U16 Championship) - Japan have opted for height over skill in their team selection for the 2015 FIBA Asia U16 Championship, head coach Torsten Loibl revealed.

Japan sit at the top of Group A with a 2-0 record following their 77-39 defeat of Malaysia on Friday.

The German play caller was keen to stress the height issue which has affected Japanese teams at previous youth events.

"Japan are known for producing skillful players, but I have to say that to compete against Asia's best, we must also have taller players," the former Germany U16 coach said.

"Japan always lacked height compared to other top Asian teams, and for that I opted to select taller players at the expense of skillful ones."

Loibl rued the fact that there was a delay in the team's preparations with all things put on hold until the suspension on the Japanese national federation was lifted in August.

"We were under suspension when I took charge of the team in May and I wasn't sure if we were coming to this event or not," he explained.

"Having waited for the suspension to be lifted, we were left short of time in preparations."

Japan basketball has been on a roll all along this year, with the women's U16 team finishing runners-up to China in the 2015 FIBA Asia Women's Championship at Medan.

That success followed by the Japanese women retaining their FIBA Asia Women's Championship title at Wuhan and qualifying for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The trend continued for Japan in Changsha at the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship as the national team qualifying for the semi-finals for the first time after 1997 and thus also earning a berth in the 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

"The idea is to keep the trend continuing for a long time," Loibl said.

"One thing is to play to the speed style that we had till now. That brings us success only till a point.

"After that, we need taller players to run the show. The process is beginning now," he added.

FIBA