KOR – Kim Min-soo takes center stage with Korea

SEOUL (FIBA Asia Championship) – Korea coach Hur Jae could sure use a big contribution from his Argentina born-and-bred power forward Kim Min-soo at the FIBA Asia Championship in Tianjin, China, when the national side attempts to earn a trip to the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey.

A top-three finish in Tianjin is required to advance to next year’s big event and the 27-year-old Kim, Hur knows, must be a combative presence under the basket for a Korean team that is smaller than most opponents.

“He is a talented player who has improved his offensive moves a lot but he must improve his defense,” Hur said.

Kim, whose father is Argentinian and mother is Korean, moved to Korea to play college basketball for Kyung Hee University and has since progressed to the professional ranks.

Last season, he turned out for SK Knights and averaged 14.3 points and five rebounds per game.

The talent is there, Hur says, but sometimes the concentration is not.

“I can see there are times when he lacks focus on the court,” Hur said.

“He positions himself well when he has possession, but the same cannot be said about his movement and positioning without the ball.”

At last year’s FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Athens, Kim averaged 12 points but the Koreans lost both of their games, including a 79-77 setback to Canada that ended their hopes of reaching Beijing.

The Koreans had led by 18 points early in the third quarter in that showdown but collapsed.

National team captain Joo Hee-jung is keen not to place too much importance on one player.

He says what’s important is to force opponents to play a fast game.

“In order to compensate for the height disadvantage, we will need to play an up-tempo game,” the 32-year-old Joo said.

He also says the Koreans need to be solid defensively.

“Teams such as Iran have stronger guards and therefore a switch from a man-to-man defense to a zone defense will be needed,” he said.

As for Kim, Joo said his teammate more than held his own at the East Asia Championship in Nagoya, Japan.

“Min-soo showed the desire and the passion to play well and we clicked well in pick-and-roll and screen plays situations,” Joo said to the JoongAng daily.

Hur will have a better idea of how his team is going to do in Tianjin after they compete at the William Jones Cup in Chinese Taipei from July 18-26.

FIBA