While the squad features a number of fresh faces, there are also veterans who have already achieved global success, such as Daiya Seto, Kosuke Hagino and Ryosuke Irie.
Feb 13, 2021
The 12 nations scheduled to participate in the final window of Asia Cup qualifying in Doha have been notified by FIBA that the window has been canceled due to a rise in COVID-19 cases in Qatar, the Japan Basketball Association announced Friday night.
In late January, the pandemic caused the qualifying window to be shifted from Tokyo to Doha, where the teams, split into three groups of four, would have competed in a bubble.
Japan is in Group B which was scheduled to play from Feb. 18 to 23 with China, Malaysia and Taiwan. Malaysia and Taiwan had already pulled out of the window due to coronavirus concerns prior to the cancellation of the Doha qualifiers.
Feb 9, 2021
The Japan Basketball Association announced its provisional 24-man roster for the upcoming third and final window of the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers on Tuesday.
The roster consists solely of players in the domestic B. League including stars such as Chiba Jets Funabashi point guard Yuki Togashi, Alvark Tokyo guard Daiki Tanaka and SeaHorses Mikawa sharpshooter Kosuke Kanamaru.
Japan head coach Julio Lamas listed Jets forward Gavin Edwards, Utsunomiya Brex forward Ryan Rossiter and Osaka Evessa forward Ira Brown as naturalized players in the squad.
FIBA relocated the window from the Tokyo metropolitan area to Doha late last month, in part due to a rising number of COVID-19 cases in Japan that prompted the government to declare a second state of emergency in the capital and 10 other prefectures, only one of which has since been released.