Last week, the Japan Basketball Association and its interim men¡¯s national team head coach Luka Pavicevic announced a 15-man squad for its upcoming exhibition series against Iran in Sapporo.
Leading up to the games on Friday and Saturday, the JBA held training camps for 60-plus players in December and January at Tokyo¡¯s National Training Center. There, Pavicevic, who was hired as the national federation¡¯s technical adviser last November, tried to instill team concepts and teach the proper ways of executing plays with more accuracy and intensity.
It is a daunting task for the JBA and Pavicevic to raise the national team, which is currently ranked No. 48 in the world, to a level where it can compete at the 2019 FIBA World Cup and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. FIBA, the sport¡¯s global governing body, has not yet guaranteed an automatic spot for Japan as host of the Summer Games
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