FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers - Japan coach Tom Hovasse plots Paris 2024 masterpiece: 'We want to get out of the group'
After ending a near half-century drought at last year's FIBA World Cup, the American tactician hopes to make even more history this summer as the Olympic year gets under way for the Japanese men.
Basketball
Tom Hovasse is rewriting Japanese basketball history as we speak.
He coached the women’s team to an Olympic silver medal at Tokyo 2020, Japan’s first podium finish in the sport, male or female.
Last summer through the FIBA World Cup, Hovasse helped the Japanese men clinch a spot in Paris this summer - the first time in 48 years they secured a quota for an Olympic Games.
The living hoops historian is now penning his latest chapter, and the plot thickens: Japan’s goal for Paris 2024 is to advance to the knockout stage of the 12-team tournament.
“It's to get out of the group,” Hovasse said during an interview with Olympics.com ahead of Thursday’s Asia Cup qualifier at home against Guam then the People’s Republic of China three days later.
“And then from there we'll hopefully continue moving forward, but we want to get out of the group.
“I said hey, this is the goal I want to do. Do you think we can do it? And I asked every single person and I had to hear their voice - yes, yes, yes.
“Everybody said they could do it so now we're all in the same boat and now we're all moving towards our goal.”
Can basketball really take off in Japan?
For decades in the shadow of the two most popular sports in Japan, baseball and football, basketball has finally entered the mainstream conscience thanks to the feat in Okinawa by Hovasse and his team.
NBA players Rui Hachimura and Watanabe Yuta have always had their share of the limelight but now it’s also B.League stars Kawamura Yuki and Togashi Yuki (the double Yuki as they are known), Baba Yudai as well as Hovasse, whose way with Japanese words routinely grab headlines, having become a walking quote book for the media.
The American says the World Cup experience will go a long way for his team, on and off the court.
“Look, our first game was against Germany. They won the whole thing,” he said, reflecting on the tournament where they beat Finland, Venezuela and Cape Verde and lost to the eventual champions and Australia.
“I think that was the only game where our nerves got to us a little bit. It was the first game, the first half, and then Germany's pressure really got to us.
“I mean it's a process, right? In the second half we beat Germany, and that gave us confidence to play Finland. Then once we were down, we still believed that we could win because we were able to win in the second half against Germany.”
Should Japan fulfill their Olympic ambitions, Hovasse believes basketball will really take off in his adopted home country.
“It could be a launching pad, 100 per cent. I mean it could be amazing. If we can show the world that we're here and this is the basketball that we play, this will be 10 times more crowded next year,” he said, pointing to the near 150 reporters who attended media day last week.
“The World Cup was the first major tournament for a lot of our guys. Just that experience is huge. I guarantee you Kawamura is going to be more ready for the Olympics mentally than he was for the World Cup.
“He's going to be more confident. A lot of these younger guys are going to be more confident. It's a process man, you just got to keep plugging. If Rui comes then that will boost us even more because now we've got a bigger lineup from top to bottom and more experience.
“We just got to do our thing do our thing and a couple of guys get hot - then watch out.”
Tom Hovasse will be trying to get Japan out of the group in Paris.
Tom Hovasse on Japan's chances at Paris 2024: 'If we can get in the top 8, that would be amazing'
Hovasse wants to make it clear that getting out of the group at the Olympics will not be easy, regardless of who his team draw next month.
At their home Games in Tokyo three years ago, Japan were swept out of the first round by Spain, Slovenia and Argentina. Their last victory on the Olympic stage dates back to Montreal 1976, with with their best result prior to that being 10th place at Tokyo 1964.
But Hovasse sees the light. He knows exactly what the team must do and by how much. Should Hachimura put his hand up, the Los Angeles Lakers forward will give Japan a jolt of chemistry they did not have at the World Cup.
How Hovasse’s latest chapter ends remains to be seen. But he can’t wait to write it.
“The World Cup was a big step for the men's team and it depends how big of a step we can take from there for the Paris 2024 Olympics. It could be huge for us - massive.
“And our goal, I didn’t say we were going to be on the medal stand. I said we're going to get out of group play. But it's hard. There's only eight teams that have qualified and it's world Nos 1, 2,3, 4, 5. It's crazy how good these teams are.
“In the World Cup, our goal was to be No. 1 in Asia which we got but we still ended up 19th in the World Cup, right? And for me, it's exciting that we qualified for Paris, an amazing goal but we were still 19th in the World Cup.
“The Olympics is going to be even tougher because there's only 12 teams. So if we can get in the top 8, that would be amazing. To achieve that would be amazing.”