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