On July 16, the two Chinese women’s basketball youth armies, which were fighting overseas, occupied the headlines of Chinese basketball without exception. In the fifth and sixth ranking of U16 Women’s Basketball Asian Cup, the Chinese team lost to South Korea with a score of 63 to 84, winning the sixth place, setting the worst record for the Chinese team to participate in the event. Shortly afterwards, China U19 women’s basketball was reversed by the opponent with a 32-point lead in the World Cup group match, with 56-60 losses and two consecutive losses in the group match. There were two incredible defeats in a row. At that time, the outside world began to worry about the reserve force that made China women’s basketball.

[U16] donation enterprises send letters to express dissatisfaction

Since the establishment of U16 Women’s Basketball Asian Cup in 2009, the Chinese team has won three championships and won the second place in this competition, but the team’s performance in the group match has dropped sharply by glasses. In the group match against Japan, the Chinese team lost as much as 26 points to the opponent by 44-70, which led to strong dissatisfaction of Wuhan shengfan group, which donated 1.2 million to the team, directly send a letter to the Chinese Basketball Association on social media to question. According to a staff member of the propaganda department of the group, after China won the second place in the World Cup women’s basketball last year, they donated 3 million yuan to the Chinese Basketball Association, of which 1.2 million were actually used for the training and preparation work of U16 Women’s basketball, “But the performance of the first game of U16 Women’s Basketball surprised people, which was somewhat different from the energy and spirit of China women’s basketball we expected, so this inquiry letter was available.”

Although in the following group match, China U16 defeated the unknown team women’s basketball Samoa, in the last match concerning the group’s qualification, however, he lost to the New Zealand team 73-95. While stopping the group match, he also missed the U17 Women’s Basketball World Cup in 2024. What was even more disappointing was that in the last fifth and sixth qualifying match, the Chinese team suffered another 21-point fiasco in the face of South Korea. Before that, the Chinese team has never lost to South Korea in this age group.

According to statistics, the 12-person list of China’s U16 Women’s Basketball Asian Cup has an average height of only 1.78 meters, which makes the Chinese team’s past height advantage disappear. Because of this, the outside world expressed doubts and confusion about the final selection and the talent-selecting standards of the coaching staff. As for the doubts from the outside world, some domestic media said that the Chinese team did not send the best athletes of the same age group to fight this time, including Zhang Ziyu, the “little giant” who has reached 2.26 meters in height. Taking Zhang Ziyu’s performance in the domestic U series events in the past two years, it is indisputable that she represented the team to participate in the U16 Women’s Basketball Asian Cup, but the reason for her failure was unknown, this makes people feel a little confused.

[U19] there are too few opportunities for the youth team to play

At the same time that U16 Women’s Basketball created the worst record in the Asian Cup, U19 women’s basketball gave all people who care about and support Chinese basketball a big bang with a humiliating failure.

After losing 62-83 to Canada in the first group match, China U19 women’s basketball welcomed the weak brigade Egypt in the second group match. In this seemingly unsuspecting match, the Chinese team once led the opponent by 44 to 12 in the first half by 32 points, but to everyone’s surprise, however, the team was like sleepwalking in the following two and a half sessions. While being scored 48 points by opponents, they only scored 12 points and finally lost an incredible match 56-60. After the game, Egyptian coach Mustafa excitedly knelt down and kissed the floor, while the International Basketball Federation wrote in its own social media: “This is one of the greatest victories in any event planned by the International Basketball Federation.”

What is noncommittal is that the current strength of China’s U19 women’s basketball is not particularly outstanding. In last year’s U18 Asian Youth League, the team had lost the Japanese team and the Chinese Taipei team in a row. Fortunately, in the follow-up Lianke South Korea and Japan, they won the tickets for this year’s U19 World Cup while breaking into the finals. In fact, compared with the result of losing the game itself, what is more unacceptable to the outside world is the way China U19 lost the game women’s basketball and the on-the-spot performance of coaches and players. In the case of the Egyptian team’s continuous offensive climax, the Serbian foreign teacher Igel polenick of China U19 women’s basketball did not call out the suspension and arrange it in time, this is not difficult to explain why the fans feel so resentful and dissatisfied.

From the runner-up of the World Cup to the champion of the Asian Cup, the Chinese women’s basketball, who won the praise of “fearless Golden Orchid”, has inspired and infected every Chinese people with the spirit and attitude of fearless and striving for the first place on the court. But at the same time, the performance of the two Chinese women’s basketball youth armies has gradually made people realize that the problem of team talent disconnection is somewhat serious.

In fact, the core lineup of China’s women’s basketball players, including Li Meng, Yang Liwei and Wang Siyu, are all close to 30 years old, which means that once the team enters the Los Angeles Olympic cycle, it will face the problem of new and old alternation. In 2017, China’s women’s basketball was falling into a period of low performance. At that time, the team coach Xu Limin broke the team. Han Xu, who had no experience in the professional arena, was recruited into the national team, later, Li Yuyi, his national youth team mate, was under his command. After six years of growth and experience, these two players have grown into an indispensable existence of China’s women’s basketball inside and outside lines. However, at the same time, similar newcomers have not emerged in the team in the past six years, how to solve the problem of new and old alternation will become the key to determine whether China’s women’s basketball achievements can be stable in the world for a long time.

In addition to the cultivation of reserve forces, the problem of WCBA league’s lack of competitiveness cannot be ignored. In recent years, the WCBA league has become the “two-person turn” of the two teams in Inner Mongolia and Sichuan. Under the circumstances that most of the national players play for these two teams, other teams can only work hard for the third place, which is obviously not a strange phenomenon conducive to the development of the league, but also cannot give young players a better growth environment and space. For the young players of these two teams, they seldom get enough playing time, while the young players of other teams lack high-level national team teammates to help. As time passes, it is not a good thing for the league and the national team.

It is undeniable that due to the impact of the epidemic, in the past three years, China’s women’s basketball youth army had few opportunities to compete at home and abroad, so that the WCBA league had been suspended for a whole season, this has indeed had a certain impact on their growth rate. How to make up for the progress that has fallen in the past three years, and how to improve the construction of youth training in women’s basketball, it takes time and wisdom.

(Text/Oriental Sports Daily reporter Xue Sijia)