By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
It could be said that Korean basketball is still in the middle of a ``dark age'' that started about 10 years ago. The domestic professional league is struggling through sagging attendance and the country is quickly losing its status as a regional power in international competition.
Basketball officials are hoping that an inspiring run at next year's Beijing Olympics could breath new life into the sport that has been on life support here for so many years.
However, judging by the talent level of the national team which bumbled through tournament after tournament in recent years, light at the end of the tunnel maybe far from near.
Korean coach Choi Boo-young earlier this week announced a roster of 12 players who will compete at the FIBA-Asia Men's Championship set for July 28 to Aug. 5 in Tokushima, Japan.
Technically, the tournament will only stake one slot to the Beijing Games, the hosts China already seeded. That means that if China wins the Tokushima joust, only the second place team will go to Beijing.
The tournament will feature 16 teams competing in four groups, with one slot for the Olympics at stake.
If China, which is granted an automatic birth as host country, makes it to the Tokushima final, the runner-up automatically qualifies for the Games. If the Chinese fail to advance, the tournament champion will go to Beijing.
Overcoming the 15-1 odds could be a tall order for the Korean team, which lost its No.2 status in Asian basketball in past years, with teams such as Japan, Qatar and Jordan finishing ahead in international tournaments.
And Choi is the first one to admit that the makeup of the national team are even less convincing than in the past, reflecting the shallow talent pool in local hoops.
Choi's team is unusual in that it is deep in centers and guards but shallow in forwards, which traditionally was the strong position for the Koreans.
Samsung Thunders' Lee Kyu-sup, a 197 centimeter forward who can't shoot from the perimeter, is the only player among forwards with extensive international experience. The second-best player in the position, Yang Hee-jong, drafted to the KT&G Kites, has yet to play his first pro game. Backup forward Cha Jae-young, from Korea University, is not even the best player on his college team.
SK Knights winger Bang Sung-yoon, and LG Sakers power forward Hyun Joo-yup, both starters for past national teams, failed to make the roster due to injuries.
``The injuries certainly killed us in the position. We had preferred professional players with international experience but many of them got hurt,'' said Choi.
``Centers Kim Joo-sung and Kim Min-soo are skilled enough to man both the four and five so we are expecting a lot from them,'' he said.
Choi had selected four centers for his team, including the two Kims, NBA Development League (NBDL)'s Ha Seung-jin, a 2.21-meter giant, and Daegu Orions center Lee Dong-joon.
This gives him the option to experiment a lineup using Kim Joo-sung (2.05 meters) at center, Kim Min-soo (2.01 meters) at power forward and Lee (1.97 meters) at small forward, giving the team one of the biggest frontlines in the tournament.
The smaller Kim, an athletic big man who plays above the rim and runs the floor well, could be an X-factor for the team as he is certainly a dangerous weapon on nights when his jump shot is falling.
Although the big frontcourt could create match-up problems for other teams, another problem for the team is the lack of scorers in the backcourt. Starting point guard Kim Seung-hyun of the Daegu Orions is the only player who could consistently create his own shot from the dribble.
Shin Ki-sung of the KTF Magic Wings is not the play-maker he once was and Yang Dong-geun of the Ulsan Pheobus is an undersized two-guard with limited ball handling abilities.
With none of them being a pure shooter who could draw the defense out to the perimeter, Korea's size inside may not matter much in the tournament. All in all, it seems that Korea is a team with many athletes but not enough players.
Korea is drawn in Group D joined by Hong Kong, Syria and Chinese-Taipei. The top two teams from each group will advance to the quarterfinals where another set of knockout matches will be held to determine the final four.
China heads Group A joined by the Philippines, Jordan and Iran. Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Japan are in Group B and Qatar, India, Kazakhstan and Indonesia are in Group C