WITH LEBANON gone, life will be less strenuous for contenders Qatar and Japan in the preliminary group clash of the 27th Fiba Asia Championship.
The Lebanese, serving a four-year suspension slapped by the International Basketball Federation or Fiba, won’t be around in the Aug.1 to 11 continental qualifer at the MOA Arena for next year’s world championship.
This will give Qatar, Japan and Hong Kong sure seats in the second phase of the group stages as Fiba opted not to invite either Iraq or the United Arab Emirates to fill up the void Lebanon left in Group B.
New head coach Tom Wisman will steer Qatar to the Asian championship with the team losing a pair of friendlies against Tunisia, 76-64, and 68-35, before their trip to Manila.
“To me, the results of these games aren’t that important as I’m just trying out new permutations and combinations,” said Wisman, who coached Japan in the 2011 Fiba Asia Championship in Wuhan, China.
“We’ll sit down and analyze where we went wrong. But I should say I’m not too disappointed with the players’ overall display,” the Australian added.
Japan is ranked 35th in the Fiba world rankings while Qatar is 36th. /inquirer