South Korea was drawn in Group D for the 2015 edition of the FIBA Asia U16 Championship for Men. Korea is grouped with China, Iraq and India. Other groupings consist of Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia and Hong Kong that forms Group A. Group B features Chinese Taipei, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Lebanon. The Philippines, North Korea, Bahrain and Thailand complete Group C.
The tournament will be played in Semarang, Indonesia from October 29, 2015 to November 7, 2015. Originally, the tournament was scheduled from July 2 to July 12 that was to be hosted in Bangalore, India but problems with the host’s federation prompted FIBA to indefinitely postpone the tournament to a later date and find a new host.
Korea’s historical performance in the U16 has been less successful compared to the U18 program and this year’s trend could hold as the federation has yet to name a head coach. If a head coach is named this week, the team has little over two weeks of preparations for the tournament.
This year’s U16 team has promising players that can be built around the rising high school standout Yang Jae-Min, a 200cm small forward with the ball handling and shooting of a guard. Other potential inclusions to the national team are 198cm forward Shin Min-Seok, a pair 200cm big men Park Min-Woo and Cho Hwe-Ung, 195cm forward Kim Hanyeong and 195cm Lee Hyeon-Jung. The potential talent to be assembled as a team easily dwarfs the 2013 U16 national team lead by Yang Jae-Hyuk in terms of talent and size.
The 2013 U16 Korean team finished fifth in the tournament and missed the chance to play in the U17 world championship. That year, youth powerhouse China alongside the Philippines and neighbor Japan were first, second and third respectively. This year, Korea is hoping to bank on talent and height to aim to finish anywhere from first to third to qualify for next year’s 2016 U17 world championship.
Sakerland 