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Beijing – 94 @ Guangsha – 114

For a full recap, check out Edward Bothfeld’s report from Hangzhou.

Box Score

Qingdao – 101 @ Foshan – 107

Guangsha’s win put Qingdao’s late season playoff surge permanently to rest, but Qingdao ultimately buried themselves by losing their must-win game at Foshan. Marcus Douthit lead all Dralion scorers with 27 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Michael Maadanly had 25 points, 11 boards and three assists. Lester Hudson shot a miraculous 35 shots, 20 of which were threes, en route to 34 points. Hudson finishes the season as the CBA’s second leading scorer at 33.5 points per game.

–Jon Pastuszek

Box Score

DongGuan – 114 @ Shanxi – 124

In the battle for third place, Shanxi were the ones who came away with the big win. Charles Gaines dominated with a 41 points, 10 rebound game; a performance only slightly more dominant than Marcus Williams’ 37 points and 10 rebounds. The win gives the Brave Dragons their first ever playoff matchup against Shanghai, while DongGuan will be matched up against Xinjiang.

–Jon Pastuszek

Box Score

Fujian – 79 @ Xinjiang – 104 

Tim Pickett played all 48 minutes and scored 42 points as the Flying Tigers made it a blowout by outscoring their opponent 32-15 in the fourth quarter. With the win, Xinjiang finishes the season in fourth place. Fujian drops to eighth.

–Jon Pastuszek

Box Score

Shanghai – 89 @ Tianjin – 85 

If there was ever a game that summed up the madness and drama of Chinese basketball, tonight was it. Shanghai got the victory- thanks to the uber-clutch Marcus Landry- but it was painfully close. However, what’s important now is that the boys from the Yuanshen are coming home with an 18-14 record before they return to north China to play the Shanxi Dragons in the first round of the playoffs.

As the game drifted into the final moments, the Sharks, having been down by around five points for most of the final quarter, suddenly burst into life and a splurge of well-taken opportunities brought Shanghai within a trey of the lead and Landry, lurking unmarked on the far left of the perimeter, had one more big shot left in the locker. Taking a couple of seconds to compose himself, the former New York Knick then dispatched his effort from downtown to give the Sharks an 86-85 lead with barely thirty seconds left.

When Zhang Nan failed his own moment of truth, the Lions had to give away cheap visits to the free-throw line to get the ball back. Harris converted both of his shots while Meng Lingyuan polished off his second effort and the Sharks were 89-85 winners at the death. Zhang Nan and Herve Lamizana both helped themselves to 22 points whilst Landry got 21 for Shanghai. Zhang Zhaoxu (19), Liu Wei (13), Mike Harris (12) and Liu Ziqiu (11), also made double-digit hauls.

–Andrew Crawford

Box Score

Guangdong added on to Bayi’s historically miserable season by doling out their franchise worst 22 loss of the season. Aaron Brooks played only six minutes, andJames Singleton played well below his normal burn with 24 minutes. Singleton managed 26 points and 12 boards, anyways.

–Jon Pastuszek

Box Score

Liaoning – 103 @ Zhejiang – 90

J.R. Smith’s last game in China ended with 25 points, 11 boards and another L as Liaoning was able to come up with a rare win away from home.

–Jon Pastuszek

Box Score

Jilin – 127 @ Jiangsu – 142

–Jon Pastuszek

Box Score

DongGuan – 97 @ Guangdong – 111

Aaron Brooks put in 24 points, James Singleton went off for 20 points and 19 rebounds, and Zhu Fangyu scored 23 as the Southern Tigers took care of business in the second leg of their annual DongGuan derby match against the Leopards. It’s the Southern Tigers’ 11th straight win.

–Jon Pastuszek

Box Score

Shanghai – 89 @ Bayi – 77

The Shanghai Sharks came roaring back from their two recent losses on the road with a commanding victory over the Bayi Rockets. The once all-conquering powerhouse of Chinese basketball looked a frail version of their former selves and a young, confident Sharks side dismantled their guests with ease. With other results going their way, the Sharks now move up to seventh place in the CBA table as the season continues to go down to the wire.

Marcus Landry was putting on a show towards the end of the game and threw down a couple of thunderous dunks, Meng Lingyuan popped up with a nice lay-up and Liu drilled home a couple of jump shots to keep the tempo going but as a competition the game looked wrapped up by the start of the fourth quarter. There was still time for Xu Zhonghao to confirm that his IQ is lower than his jersey number when he needlessly blindsided the considerably smaller Meng with seven seconds left on the clock. As the guard lay prone on the floor, Mike Harris looked like he wished he could do more than point to the scoreboard and look pissed, but the game was done. Meng eventually got to his feet, the buzzer rang and the Sharks were 89-77 victors.

Landry scored a game-high 22 points whilst Harris (15 points, 10 rebounds) and Zhang Zhaoxu (11 points, 15 rebounds) both picked up double-doubles in a result that Coach Panaggio called ‘a very good game against a very good and well coached team’. For Bayi, Wang Zhizhi scored 20 points.Taking the time to praise his team, Panaggio also praised the defensive work of Liu Ziqiu for keeping Bayi at bay. When asked about Wednesday’s critical match, the Sharks’ coach was brief and direct; ‘We’ve got a very big game against [Zhejiang Bulls]‘; ‘they are in a battle for a playoff spot as are we. There are no room for slip ups’.

–Andrew Crawford

Box Score

Foshan – 111 @ Zhejiang – 107

The Golden Bulls are hanging onto their playoff lives after becoming only the fifth team to lose at Foshan this season. J.R. Smith once again put up a huge scoring output with 41 points, but as has been the pattern recently, huge individual tallies haven’t been adding up in the win column. Michael Maadanly 34 points and five rebounds and Marcus Haislip had 31 and 10 to lead the Dralions to their seventh win of the season.

–Jon Pastuszek

Box Score

Will McDonald continued his case for NiuBBall All-CBA First Team with a dominant 36 point, 17 rebound performance against Liaoning. Losers of their last three, Liaoning are now out of the playoffs, while Fujian sits in sole control of fifth. Liaoning’s Han Dejun had 20 points and 14 boards for the losers, who were unable to get past Rodney Carney’s 3-14 performance from three.

–Jon Pastuszek

Box Score

Guangsha – 100 @ Shanxi – 107

Guangsha is now unbelievably out of the playoffs. Like they have all year, Shanxi relied on its foreign duo of Charles Gaines (28 points, 14 rebounds) and Marcus Williams (27 points, four rebounds, six assists) to beat a desperate Guangsha team who is still searching for answers to what is now a 2-9 streak. Wilson Chandler had 22 points and seven boards, but was once again not aggressive getting into the lane as he finished with only one free-throw attempt. P.J. Ramos played well with 32 and 17.

–Jon Pastuszek

Box Score

Beijing – 102 @ Qingdao – 114

Qingdao’s Li Gen scored a career high 41 points and Lester Hudson stuffed the stat sheet with 39-7-10 as Qingdao took down the Ducks at home. The result won’t really affect anything — Beijing pretty much has the No. 2 spot locked up, while Qingdao would need to win their last three and get some help in the standings to make the playoffs.

–Jon Pastuszek

Box Score

Xinjiang picked up a crucial win that improved their chances of making the post-season after getting third road win of the season against Jilin. The visitors overcame a tough shooting night by Tim Pickett through balanced scoring, as five different players scored in double-figures. Gani Lawal had 21 points and nine rebounds and Tang Zhengdong had 17 and seven, including a crucial tip in down the stretch to secure the win.

Cartier Martin went off for 30 second half points after only hitting for four in the first half.

–Jon Pastuszek

Box Score

Jiangsu – 99 @ Shandong – 102

Box Score

Guangsha – 69 @  Xinjiang – 99

Once towards the top of the standings, is Guangsha even going to make the playoffs? That’s the question after the Lions were blown out in Urumqi on Friday. After rebounding with a strong game in Round 28, Wilson Chandler reverted back to passively shooting jump shots, finishing 4-16 for 10 points.

The game was never close. Xinjiang’s Tim Pickett got off to a hot start and continued to stay aggressive on offense, scoring 35 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Gani Lawal contributed with 15 points and eight boards and Mengke Bateer put in 15. The win is Xinjiang’s fourth straight and puts them in seventh place, while Guangsha drops to sixth.

Guangsha feeds of Chandler, who when he wants to be is the toughest individual matchup in the league. However, a long-term NBA deal likely on the table whenever he returns to the NBA, Chandler’s priority appears to lie within maintaining his health in preparation for his big payday.

–Jon Pastuszek

Box Score

Shanghai – 108 @ Shanxi – 119

The Shanghai Sharks came, they saw, they got lit up. Shanxi’s high scoring duo of Marcus Williams and Charles Gaines did exactly what their guests were hoping they wouldn’t and blew Shanghai away with some red-hot shooting. After a plucky first half from the Sharks, the Shanxi Brave Dragons’ demolition men coolly stepped up a gear and promptly ripped the Sharks asunder with a devastating final twenty minutes of huge threes, marauding drives to the basket and some deft low post action. It was not pleasant viewing for a Shanghai fan.

Although the Sharks limped their way over the hundred-point mark themselves, the margin of defeat was telling and the visitors now make their way back to Shanghai after eventually losing 119-108 to a rampant Shanxi team that is almost certainly bound for the playoffs. Williams finished on 44 points, Gaines got 37 of his own whilst Ren Junhui’s 11 points meant he also got in on the double-digit party for Shanxi.

Meanwhile Mike Harris picked up a double-double of 37 points and 12 rebounds for Shanghai, Marcus Landry got 23 points and Liu Ziqiu continued his quiet resurgence with a gutsy 14 points but the Sharks now have to win four from their final five games to have any chance of making it to the postseason. Tough times just become a lot tougher.

–Andrew Crawford

Box Score

Liaoning – 94 @ DongGuan – 107

DongGuan got 35 points and 16 boards from Shavlik Randolph and Josh Akognon had 27 as they beat visiting Liaoning by 13 at home. Thanks to Randolph’s activity in the frontcourt, DongGuan went +7 on the offensive glass and forced the visiting squad into 10-27 from the three-point line. The Jaguars, who have won just two road games the whole year, got nothing out of Josh Powell, who played only 16 minutes, picking up four points and three rebounds. At 14-13, they have put themselves out of the playoff picture and could slip further if they lose tonight at Fujian.

–Jon Pastuszek

Box Score

Shandong – 115 @ Zhejiang – 121 (OT)

Alan Anderson shot an amazing 42 shots to tally 54 points, but his individual shootaround wasn’t enough for Shandong to come up with the win. J.R. Smith shot 29 shots to get 41, but Zhejiang’s balanced support in Josh Boone (19 points), Ding Jinhui (15) and Chang Chunjun (13).

–Jon Pastuszek

Box Score

Jilin – 96 @ Fujian – 109 

Box Score

Tianjin – 112 @ Beijing – 122

Box Score

Qingdao – 97 @ Jiangsu – 92

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Bayi – 116 @ Foshan – 106

Box Score

Qingdao – 110 @ Zhejiang – 122

J.R. Smith scored 60 points and broke a CBA single-game record with 14 threes. I’ll let the video to the rest of the talking.

–Jon Pastuszek

Fujian – 132 @ Guangsha – 125 (2 OT)

Wilson Chandler’s 36-21 wasn’t enough to keep visiting Fujian from getting a much needed split on their Shanghai-Guangsha road trip to keep their playoff hopes very much alive. Zaid Abbas, Will McDonald, Anthony Roberson and Gong Songlin combined for an insane 121 points as only Zhou Qixin and Yang Genglin were the only other two players to score.

11-loss Guangsha now faces a critical road test at Xinjiang on Friday. A win will put them squarely in mess that is the CBA playoff race, a win will give them some breathing space.

–Jon Pastuszek

Shanghai – 84 @ Xinjiang – 89

A Shanghai Sharks team got close but couldn’t win against a Xinjiang Flying Tigers side that showed flashes of real talent and menace but also looked brittle at times. Having stayed with the Flying Tigers throughout the game, a crucial ninety seconds decided everything. Firstly, Shanghai’s Mike Harris fouled out and Mengke Bateer converted his second free-throw from the foul to make the scores 82-82. A clutch three from Xirelijiang and then a lay-up form Shanghai’s Zhang Zhaoxu made it 85-84. With 17 seconds on the clock, the Sharks then managed to turn the ball over not once but twice and the Tigers confirmed victory in farcical fashion and that frankly was a little harsh on a visiting side that played with 100% effort.

Lawal scored 19 points and picked up 15 rebounds whilst Picket also got a 15 point, 12 rebound double-double. For Shanghai, Landry got a game high 20 points, Harris made 15 and Zhang got 10.

A tough loss for the Sharks mean that they fall out of the post-season places with another tricky away game (Shanxi Dragons) waiting for them on Friday. (What’s worse is that they’ve lost the tiebreaker to Xinjiang — their head-to-head record is even, but their head-to-head point differential, Xinjiang +1, gives them the edge in the event that they finish with the same record. You can thank that last steal by Pickett on Liu Ziqiu for that one. — Jon) Shanghai will need to regroup and play with the same zest against the Dragons that they showed in Urumqi if they are to have a shot at keeping their playoff dreams alive.

–Andrew Crawford

Liaoning – 108 @ Guangdong – 122

34 points from Aaron Brooks and 28 from James Singleton gave the Southern Tigers a rare game of total import dominance, as the only Chinese players to check in with double figures were Zhou Peng and Zhu Fangyu. It’s Guangdong’s 10th straight win.

–Jon Pastuszek

Jilin – 98 @ DongGuan – 120

Jilin makes it 0-2 on what will soon be an 0-3 Guangdong-DongGuan-Fujain road trip as they start to plan their spring off-season. And hey, maybe Jilin knows that more than we do — Cartier Martin only played 14 minutes and Osama Dahglas played 10. Wait, did I say off-season? I mean months and months of burning out their bodies with mindless practices. For the Chinese players.

DongGuan’s Josh Akognon continues his hot post-Spring Festival break with 31 points. If he stays hot, DongGuan will be a tougher team to beat come playoff time.

–Jon Pastuszek

Shandong – 87 @ Bayi – 107

Foshan – 115 @ Shanxi – 129

Jiangsu – 99 @ Tianjin – 105

Round 26: (January 18th)

Zhejiang – 92 @ Beijing – 103

Stephon Marbury put down arguably the best single-game performance of the season — and his case for CBA MVP — with a super efficient 45 point, 12 rebound, 11 assist triple-double as the Ducks took out J.R. Smith and the visiting Golden Bulls in Beijing.

Losing by five heading into the fourth quarter, Beijing outscored their opponents 28-14 to snatch the win. Much of that was through Marbury, who put in two separate personal runs of five and seven straight points. Marbury, who played 43 minutes in all, turned the ball over only once, shooting 15-29 from the field and 10-12 from the free-throw line.

J.R. had himself a nice individual game with 39 points and eight rebounds, but only finished with one assist.

–Jon Pastuszek

Box Score

Guangdong – 100 @ Guangsha – 97

Once considered title contenders, Guangsha slipped further down the standings after losing their sixth in seven games, with the latest loss being dealt by league powerhouse, Guangdong.

Up for most of the first half, Guangsha seemed poised to put their string of bad results behind them. But, Guangdong came out firing in the third quarter with 38 points to put them up by a comfortable margin before the home team made it slightly interesting in the fourth. Wilson Chandler continued his offense anemia, shooting a ghastly 1-10 from three en route to a ho-hum 24 points.

Aaron Brooks finished as Guangdong’s high scorer with 26, while Wang Shipeng and Zhu Fangyu did their job offensively with 24 and 23 points respectively.

With the win, Guangdong becomes the first team to clinch a playoff spot and once again look like the strong favorites to win the title.

–Jon Pastuszek

Box Score

DongGuan – 97 @ Shanghai – 110

For now at least, normal service at the Yuanshen has been resumed as the Shanghai Sharks eased to victory over the DongGuan Leopards. Mike Harris returned to the line-up after the death of his brother and conjured up a sensation performance to help Shanghai beat their guests, 110-97. The away side struggled to contain their hosts’ forwards and Shavlik Randolph failed to get any momentum going in a game where he was mercilessly heckled by the home crowd from start to finish. The Sharks keep their winning record going into the New Year break and now stand at 13-11 with eight games to go in the regular season.

To top of an emotional night, a last-second substitution allowed Harris to get an ovation from the crowd, the coaching staff and the owner himself, Yao Ming as the game clocked faded to zero. The returning Sharks forward had picked up 38 points and 12 rebounds while Marcus Landry (24), Liu Wei (18) and Liu Ziqiu (14) also had themselves double-digit shooting nights. For DongGuan, five Leopards players also got significant hauls; Josh Akognon (24 points), Randolph (23), Qiu Biao (15), Qu Guan (11) and Zhang Kai (10).

In his press conference after the game, Dan Panaggio was keen to congratulate Harris on his gutsy performance, noting that the forward had arrived back in Shanghai at around 3:30pm that day and had got himself to the game 30 minutes before the tip-off. ‘He just wanted to get back to his team’, added the Sharks coach, before revealing that Zhang Zhaoxu had persuaded him to sub Harris off so that the American could get his ovation from the crowd. Equally, Panaggio looked relieved to have got the victory to keep the Sharks in contention for a play-off spot but was also keen to stress that there was still several crucial games to come once the season restarts on January 29th. ‘I’m grateful to have won this game…but our job is still in front of us and it is a difficult one’.

– Andrew Crawford

Box Score

Xinjiang – 98 @ Shandong – 104

The Flying Tigers made it 0-2 on their two-game Shandong roadtrip, losing to a struggling Shandong team three days after getting spanked by Qingdao. Xirelijiang, who kept Alan Anderson under 10 points in the two team’s first encounter earlier in the year, wasn’t given a chance to guard the former Michigan State standout and Anderson responded with 32 rather effortless points. Othello Hunter pitched in with 22 points and 10 boards.

It was Xinjiang’s 11th road loss of the year, tying them for the worst road record in the league.

–Jon Pastuszek

Box Score

Liaoning – 91 @ Jilin – 99

Liaoning’s inconsistency reared its ugly head again in Jilin after the Jaguars came up empty against non-playoff outfit Jilin on the road. Cartier Martin did it to the visitors with 38 points and seven rebounds. Osama Dahglas nearly missed out on a triple-double, going for 15 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists.

Josh Powell, who has been the subject of constant rumors the last couple of weeks, managed only two points and nine rebounds. Though Liaoning has one of the more talented domestic rosters, they’ll need much more from their American big man if they’re to have any shot of advancing in the post-season in March.

–Jon Pastuszek

Box Score

Shanxi – 110 @ Qingdao – 106

Box Score

Bayi – 98 @ Tianjin – 110

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Fujian – 110 @ Foshan – 100

Box Score

Round 4 Make-Ups (January 20th)

Zhejiang @ Xinjiang

Xinjiang and Zhejiang played a very physical and intense match that ended with Xinjiang coming out on top. Gani Lawal, who sat for most of the first half after the Flying Tigers got off to a slow start offensively, came back with a vengeance and then some in the second, scoring 20 points and grabbing 21 rebounds, 14 of which came on the offensive end, in just 28 minutes. Tim Pickett had a nice game as well, finishing with 32-6-6.

Entertaining throughout, the game ultimately unraveled in the end for Chouzhou because Josh Boone and J.R. Smith both fouled out with over four minutes to play in the fourth quarter, the latter fouling out on an offensive foul. Frustrated at the referees, who let a lot of physical play under the basket slide, Smith whipped the basketball at the nearest referee, which resulted in his second technical of the game. He got his first earlier in the third quarter after he jawed back and forth with Lawal. Smith had a number of incredible individual plays, including an off-the-wrong-foot slam that he powered home after dismissing three defenders with a slick crossover. He finished with 41 points, but came up goose eggs in the assist department.

–Jon Pastuszek

Box Score (Chinese)

Bayi – 105 @ Shanxi – 109

Box Score (Chinese)

June 14th: China’s young “second team” goes down to Japan in East Asian Championship semi-finals

Coming off of a solid win against South Korea on June 12th in the last game of the group stage, young Team China entered their semi-finals game last Tuesday against Japan with a marquee win over one of their biggest Asian rivals. Knowing that a rematch in the Finals was all but assured after the Koreans beat China Taipei in the game before, the Chinese knew that their toughest work still lay ahead of them.

If only they knew.

Forcing the Chinese into 17 second-half turnovers, Japan spoiled any thoughts of a China-Korea Round Two as they stormed back from a 12 point halftime deficit to upset the hosts 72-62 in Nanjing. Though the loss is a bitter disappointment for the Chinese, their failure to win won’t have any effect on their qualification for the FIBA Asia Championship in September. As the host nation, China has already received an automatic bid and will be assured the chance to play in the official Asian qualifying tournament for the 2012 London Olympics.

Kenta Hirose, Shinsuke Kashigawi and Kosuke Takeuchi all scored 13 points to lead the Japenese. “Max” Zhang Zhaoxu led the Chinese with 16 points.  The Chinese Second Team hasn’t beat Japan in six years, dating back to when they lost to the Japanese in the 2005 East Asia Games semi-finals.

Yu Shulong, Meng Duo, Yi Li, Dong Hanlin and Su Wei started for Team China, but with the Chinese’s spot in the FIBA Asia Championship locked up as the host nation, substitute head coach Li Nan subbed in and out freely in order to give all players ample time to showcase their ability.  Yu, Meng, Zhang Bo and Han Shuo interchanged throughout the first half in a three-guard attack, with China’s four-headed inside combo of Su, Dong, Zhang and Mo Ke doing the dirty work up front.  Facilitating mostly out of the high-post, the Chinese offense looked decent at best and positively terrible at worst.

But, by the end of the first half, China’s huge size advantage up front translated into numerous offensive rebounds and putbacks.  On the defensive side, the Japanese couldn’t get anything going in their offensive sets, and when it got late in the shot clock, the Japanese guards had trouble breaking down anybody off the dribble for clean looks.  With their domination on the glass and solid defense, China went into the locker room up 38-24, despite turning the ball over nine times.

Coming out in the second half, Japan made a few key adjustments on both ends. Ramping up the effort on the defensive end, Japan swarmed China’s big men on the catch, sending two and sometimes three men into the post. Though all of China’s bigs struggled to do anything positive offensively in the second half, Su Wei stood out as the team’s worst performer.  Looking equally inept at either scoring or passing, Su charged into defenders, lost the ball in traffic, threw the ball away and got his shot blocked en route to six turnovers.

It didn’t get much better for China’s guards.  Meng coughed up the rock seven times, most of which came as a result of forcing reckless drives into traffic.  Yu, who threw a couple of loopy passes that were picked off and converted into points on the other end, didn’t fare much better, finishing with four himself.

When Japan wasn’t racing out in transition off turnovers, they were calmly executing in their half court offense off of dribble penetration and ball screens.  Confounded by Japan’s steady second half diet of pick-and-rolls, the Chinese allowed their opponents easy access into the lane for simple lay-ups or kick outs.  Japan purposely picked on the immobile Su and Zhang on pick-and-rolls, and with the plodding duo slow to both show out and recover, Hirose and Kashigawi ran amok as China’s helpside defense refused to make even the most basic rotations.

Though the loss is disappointing, its key to remember that this was not even close to China’s best team.  Bob Donewald was back in Beijing with the team’s best players preparing for China’s trip to Australia, so this was a chance for China’s young and inexperienced players to pick up some game action.  But, don’t try telling that to Chinese fans. On a poll after the game on Sina.com, 76% of voters said the game was “a dissapointment, there’s no way they should have lost.”

In the third-place game, China beat Chinese Taipei, and Korea beat Japan in the championship.

June 16th: Before team heads off to Australia, Donewald trims National Team roster to 20

Forced to do another round of cuts in the days prior to China leaving for a an exhibition series in Australia, Bob Donewald released seven players from National Team duty.

Liu Ziqiu, Peng Fei, Duan Jiangpeng, Han Shuo, Zhang Kai, Dong Hanlin and Zhang Sontao were all axed.  Yao Ming, despite publicly contemplating retirement, remains on the roster.

The remaining players:

Guards: Wang Shipeng (王仕鹏), Zhang Bo (张博), Liu Wei (刘炜), Zhang Qingpeng (张庆鹏), Xirelijiang (西热力江), Meng Duo (孟铎), Guo Ailun (郭艾伦), Yu Shulong (于澍龙)

Forwards: Sun Yue (孙悦), Zhou Peng (周鹏), Zhu Fangyu (朱芳雨), Wang Lei (王磊), Ding Jinhui (丁锦辉), Yi Li (易立)

Centers: Mo Ke (莫科), Su Wei (苏伟), Wang Zhizhi (王治郅), Zhang Zhaoxu (张兆旭), Yi Jianlian (易建联), Yao Ming (姚明)

All except Yao, Yi, Guo and Meng went on the trip.  Yao is injured, Yi is back in the States training privately, and Guo is with the U-19 National Team preparing for the FIBA U-19 Championship.  Meng did not make the trip for undisclosed reasons.

China beat Austrailian professional club team, the Perth Wildcats, on Wednesday and will play the Australian National Team tonight.  The two teams will play again on Sunday in Singapore.

June 20th: CBA announces roster for FIBA U-19 World Championship

With the FIBA U-19 World Championship set to tip off in Latvia on June 30th, the CBA announced the official roster for the tournament.

Guards: Wang Zirui (王子瑞), Guo Ailun (郭艾伦), Luo Hanshen (罗汉琛)

Forwards: Zhai Xiaochuan (翟晓川), Gu Quan (顾全), Ju Mingxin (鞠明欣), Wang Pu (王璞), Zhu Xuhang (朱旭航), Sun Tonglin (孙桐林)

Centers: Xu Tao (徐韬), Wang Zhenglin (王哲林), Li Muhao (李慕豪)

China has been drawn in Group D with U.S.A., Egypt and Serbia.

This is considered to be one of the best U-19 teams China has ever fielded.  Beyond Guo, who should be one of the better players in the tournament, China also boasts Li Muhao, Gu Quan and Zhai Xiaochuan among a roster that is expected to at the very least make it out of the group stages.

On Friday April 8th, the Chinese Basketball Association announced the 37-player Men’s National Team roster that will train at the China National Sports Training Center in Beijing this spring in preparation for the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship.  The competition, which will be held in Henan, China from September 15-25, is the the qualifying tournament for FIBA Asia for the 2012 London Summer Olympics men’s basketball tournament.

With both the CBA and NBA seasons still in progress, the roster has been split up into three separate groups, each of which have different mandatory dates to report.  Group 1, which is comprised of 11 players whose teams did not make the CBA playoffs this season, officially reported to training yesterday afternoon.  Group 2, which has 21 players, all of whom played playoff basketball, will report sometime around May 1st, while Group 3, China’s NBA players, will join everyone at a later date.

Among the usual names like Yi Jianlin, Wang Zhizhi, and Liu Wei is Yao Ming, who despite missing most of season with a stress fracture in his left ankle was selected by the CBA to represent the National Team this summer in Beijing.  Though he’ll be required to report, Yao’s selection is almost certainly only symbolic — throughout the year the CBA has maintained they will exercise extreme caution in allowing Yao to recover from yet another serious injury, and have even implied that the big man’s National Team career could very well be over, even if his ankle heals properly.

Yao, who will spend time in China this summer, was happy after learning of his selection.

“It’s an honor to be selected to the National Team.  If my foot allows, I’ll be right there to cheer them on,” said Yao to a Chinese reporter in Houston.

Unlike in the United States and other Western countries, Chinese players are required to serve on the National Team if called upon.  Since players were raised and trained by the state, as opposed to Western players who received coaching from club teams, schools and amateur associations, the top Chinese athletes have only their country to thank for their development, and thus athletes’ priorities to their country come before those of both their professional team and themselves.  The superiority of the state over the individual in sports is one of the main cultural differences between China and the West.

The roster will be paired down in June as Team China will play a number of warm-up games in preparation for the Asia Championship.

Group 1:

Sun Jie (孙杰) Guard, Shandong*
Guo Ailun (郭艾伦), Guard, Liaoning
Yu Shulong (于澍龙) Guard, Jilin*
Zhong Cheng (钟诚) Guard, Jilin*

Liu Ziqiu (刘子秋) Forward, Shanghai
Peng Fei (彭飞), Forward, Shanghai
Duan Jiangpeng (段江鹏), Forward, Shanxi
Zhang Xuewen (张学文), Forward, Shanxi*
He Tianju (贺天举), Forward, Liaoning

Li Xiaoxu (李晓旭), Center, Liaoning*
Han Dejun (韩德君), Center, Liaoning

Group 2:

Chen Jianghua (陈江华) Guard, Guangdong
Wang Shipeng (王仕鹏) Guard, Guangdong*
Zhang Bo (张博) Guard, Bayi
Han Shuo (韩硕) Guard, Bayi
Liu Wei (刘炜) Guard, Shanghai*
Sun Yue (孙悦) Guard, Beijing Aoshen
Zhang Qingpeng (张庆鹏) Guard, Xinjiang*
Xirelijiang (西热力江) Guard, Xinjiang

Zhou Peng (周鹏) Forward, Guangdong
Zhu Fangyu (朱芳雨) Forward, Guangdong*
Dong Hanlin (董瀚麟) Forward, Guangdong
Wang Lei (王磊)Forward, Bayi
Mo Ke (莫科) Forward, Bayi*
Ding Jinhui (丁锦辉) Forward, Zhejiang Chouzhou*
Yi Li (易立) Forward, Jiangsu*
Zhang Kai (张凯) Forward, DongGuan*
Meng Duo (孟铎) Forward, DongGuan

Su Wei (苏伟) Center, Guangdong*
Wang Zhizhi (王治郅) Center, Bayi*
Zhang Zhaoxu (张兆旭) Center, Shanghai
Zhang Songtao (张松涛) Center, Beijing Aoshen

Group 3:

Yi Jianlian (易建联) Forward, Washington Wizards
Yao Ming (姚明) Center, Houston Rockets**

Reserves:

Mengke Bateer (巴特尔) Center, Xinjiang*
Tang Zhengdong (唐正东) Center, Jiangsu
Wang Zheng (王征) Center, Guangdong

* Denotes 2010-11 CBA All-Star
** Denotes 2010-11 NBA All-Star