Japan head coach Julio Lamas simply feels happy to have the band back together after over a year of inactivity due to the ongoing pandemic.
The Akatsuki Five have not played together for 16 long months, or since dealing Chinese Taipei a harsh 96-57 beatdown back in the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers’ opening window back in February 2020 in the latter’s home turf.
That match is just one of the two contests completed so far in Group B, which also features China and Malaysia. The teams would have resumed play in the previous window last November, but saw their games called off.
Now the group, except the Southeast Asian cagers, are all set to return to action, thus the excitement felt by the decorated Argentinian mentor.
“We didn’t play games in the last sixteen months. For us, it’s very important to practice together. We are excited with these few practices,” Lamas said in an interview during the team’s photo shoot, Monday.
Japan, though, will have itself a busy campaign in the five-day event owing to the cancelled games. It takes on China on June 16 and 19, with another match against the Taiwanese in between on the 18th.
As tough as it may seem, though, Lamas remains unfazed. He also expressed confidence in his and his team’s preparation for the meet.
“We cancelled games in February and November and we must catch up the games. We prepared a good schedule. If we can respect the schedule, we’ll be okay,” said the former Argentina chief bench tactician.
Lamas brought along 17 players for the third window, and on Tuesday named the 12 men that will go up against the Chinese on Wednesday.
His squad has naturalized big Gavin Edwards, Makoto Hiejima, Yuki Togashi, Kosuke Takeuchi, Joji Takeuchi, Seiya Ando, Avi Schafer, Leo Vendrame, Shuto Ando, Kosuke Kanamaru, Hugh Watanabe, and Tenketsu Harimoto.
Daiki Tanaka, Naoto Tsuji, Aki Chambers, Ryusei Shinoyama, and the other naturalized player in Ryan Rossiter did not make the cut. They could take part in their next assignments, though.
Now, Lamas and his crew have locked in to play the best they can in a bid to qualify for the Asia Cup proper in August in Jakarta, Indonesia.
“Very happy we’ll stay here and go back to play,” said the 57-year-old, who took over the Japanese team’s coaching reins back in 2017.
“Everybody has suffered a lot in this situation — in personal and professional — for a year. We are very happy to be staying in the Philippines, and we will give our best to try to play good and try to win games.”
