Shock defeats expose harsh realities of women's program

A series of crushing defeats at the youth level have been a wake-up call for China's women's basketball program, highlighting its stagnant talent development, despite its recent success at the senior level.

With the Chinese senior team's Asia Cup win two weeks ago still fresh in the memory, the disappointing performances of Team China at the Under-19 and U16 international tournaments have rung an alarm bell, highlighting the hidden concern behind the glitter — a shrinking talent pool in the women's game hampered by a lack of investment and exposure from the bottom up.

To the shock and disbelief of fans watching at home, the Chinese squad squandered a massive 32-point lead over Egypt in the first half, before losing 60-56 in its second round-robin game at the FIBA U19 Women's World Cup in Spain on Sunday.

Beaten by the African underdog in Group B, the Chinese squad, which also lost its opener 83-62 to fourth seed Canada on Saturday and plays its final group game against the Czech Republic on Tuesday, is now facing an almost impossible mission to advance to the knockout stage.

Hours earlier, a junior squad was defeated by South Korea 84-63 in a ranking game at the U16 Asian Championship to finish in sixth place, the country's worst ever result at that level in Asia.

As a three-time champion at the U16 Asian tournament, the Chinese squad lost three of its total four games at this year's event, with an aggregate deficit of 69 points in a humiliating campaign capped by its first defeat to South Korea at that level in 10 years.

"Dark Sunday" has triggered a wave of anger at home, with Team China's official social media account flooded with harsh criticism and questions from fans about the worrying decline.

"Someone needs to take responsibility for this unbelievable loss. We need a thorough investigation and review," Shao Huaqian, a basketball commentator with Titan Sports, said of the U19 team's loss in a Weibo post on Monday.

Coached by Serbian Igor Polenek, the U19 Chinese squad embraced the youth World Cup as a testing ground for its core players who are expected to go on to bolster the senior team in the future.

However, the young squad's disastrous second-half collapse, which saw it score only 12 points in the final two quarters while Egypt, catching up with a pressing defense and fast attacks, exposed the lack of intensity and consistency of Team China, something noted by the team's former coach Li Xin.

"It's really a big concern that we have so few good players at this age group to pick for a national youth team," Li said last year after guiding the current team to the semifinals at the U18 Asian Championship.

"Our youth training system needs an overhaul and the domestic league is also not competitive enough," said the former Chinese national team starter.

"This is the best we could come up with, yet it's far from enough."

Earlier this month in Sydney, the Chinese adult team won its first Asia Cup title in 12 years after beating archrival and defending champion Japan, 73-71, in the final on July 2, following a record-equaling runner-up finish at last year's FIBA World Cup in the same Australian city.

The sharp slump at the youth level, though, has also drawn concerns from sponsors.

Wuhan Shengfan Group, after investing 1.2 million yuan ($167,280) to fund the U16 team's preparation for the Asian Championship, filed an official letter to the CBA on Thursday to question the squad's lackluster performance.

"After supporting the training camp for five months with funds donated to the CBA, how come the team performed in such a disappointing manner? Didn't the training program go as planned? Was it the coaching staff's responsibility, or just the poor level of the players?" said the complaint.

Once a productive cradle of the country's top players, such as current senior team starters and WNBA stars Li Meng and Han Xu, the Chinese Women's Basketball Association league is suffering from a lack of investment and media exposure over the past three seasons due to the pandemic.

Having been organized inside bio-secure "bubbles" behind closed doors, instead of the traditional home-and-away format, the WCBA league is losing its appeal for sponsors, while the absence of competitive foreign players, due to the travel restrictions, has worsened its attraction as a professional league.

Fans and media have urged the CBA to reinstate the home-and-away format for the 2023-24 season, and to allow clubs to recruit foreigners to improve the league's quality.

"Only by making the league more competitive can we hone our own players in the domestic system before asking them to shoulder the hefty responsibility on the international stage," said Shao.

sunxiaochen@chinadaily.com.cn