카지노 Head coach Tom Horvath reflects on the game.
The Japan Men’s National Team, coached by Tom Horvath, lost 69-79 to the Republic of Korea Men’s National Team, coached by Chu Il-seung, at Jamsil Gymnasium in Seoul on 22 February. The two teams will play one more game on the 23rd.
On the same day, Coach Hobas said, “I expected it. I think we were outplayed physically. It was a good test for us. Korea was physically dominant, and we’ll take what we learned from today’s game and prepare for the next one.”
“In the first half, we were outrebounded because of their (good) physicality. We were better in the second half, but with our big man (Josh Hawkinson) out (for the entire game), we thought we were going to be outrebounded because of the way we rotated our defence. Tomorrow we will prepare a strategy to make up for it.”
Asked how the team will overcome its weaknesses on the bigger stage of the World Cup, Hobas said: “It’s a learning process, but it’s one that we can overcome depending on the composition of the roster. Josh Hawkinson is the best rebounder in our squad. It will be good to have those guys back before the World Cup. Rebounding has always been a weakness for the Japanese team and we need to have the attitude to overcome it.”
“I’ll have to analyse the data, but I don’t think we struggled with Korea’s on-ball defence, but rather with Korea’s physicality. It was a weakness that was also exposed against Taiwan, so we want to work on it.”
“I was impressed with Heo Hoon. He seems like a smart player. He pressured us well. Tomorrow we will bring a different strategy and try to shut him down.”
Finally, when asked where he was aiming to finish at the World Cup in his home country, he said, “We want to be number one in Asia. We are also aiming to qualify for the Paris Olympics with a good performance.”