FIBA Asia '11 Central Asia Qualifier [Jul 28-Aug 4 Uzbekistan]

[Mojado]

28 July to 4 August in Navoi, Uzbekistan.

Kazakhstan: May not field a team as there are monetary problems to pay their coaches and players.
Uzebkistan: The hosts didnt do well in the past Asian Games and were only able to beat small-sized North Korea. Best player is young forward Samender Juginisov while veteran forward Hurmatjon Nuraliev adds socring as well. Vyacheslav Denisov plays in the Ukraine for Dynamo Dnepropetrovsk.
Tajikistan: ???
Turkmenistan: They have some pro players in Otbozin (211cm, BK Almaty) and Aleksandr Pashkov (BK Almaty) but lost to Mongolia in the Asian games last year.
Afghanistan: All players are U.S. citizen (with Afghani background though), but FIBA may makes an excemption so the country can field a team in Navoi in a FIBA competition for the first time. They were able to beat India in the South Asian Games last year and did well in the Asian Games in 2006. May have a good chance to qualfiy if FIBA lets them play.

[mohsena2631]

28 July to 4 August in Navoi, Uzbekistan.

Kazakhstan: May not field a team as there are monetary problems to pay their coaches and players.
Uzebkistan: The hosts didnt do well in the past Asian Games and were only able to beat small-sized North Korea. Best player is young forward Samender Juginisov while veteran forward Hurmatjon Nuraliev adds socring as well. Vyacheslav Denisov plays in the Ukraine for Dynamo Dnepropetrovsk.
Tajikistan: ???
Turkmenistan: They have some pro players in Otbozin (211cm, BK Almaty) and Aleksandr Pashkov (BK Almaty) but lost to Mongolia in the Asian games last year.
Afghanistan: All players are U.S. citizen (with Afghani background though), but FIBA may makes an excemption so the country can field a team in Navoi in a FIBA competition for the first time. They were able to beat India in the South Asian Games last year and did well in the Asian Games in 2006. May have a good chance to qualfiy if FIBA lets them play.

both Otbozin and Pashkov played also in Iran as import for the poorest team of the Iranian league ! I think they are good for this level.

I hope to see one of our neighbours in the main tournament. Turkmenistan or Afghanistan

but I checked some Afaghani news websites and I found nothing about this tournament in any of them

[sinobball]

Not sure how relevant this information is, but “poor” Kazakhstan is sending a team to the World Military Games which will start this weekend (so is Uzbekistan, and other Asian countries like Qatar and South Korea.)

http://www.rio2011.mil.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1508%3Acompetition-program&catid=170&Itemid=89&lang=en

Can't find rosters though. If the past is an indication I believe Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan usually send something really close to an NT to these military tournaments.

[tmlouk]

28 July to 4 August in Navoi, Uzbekistan.

Kazakhstan: May not field a team as there are monetary problems to pay their coaches and players.
Uzebkistan: The hosts didnt do well in the past Asian Games and were only able to beat small-sized North Korea. Best player is young forward Samender Juginisov while veteran forward Hurmatjon Nuraliev adds socring as well. Vyacheslav Denisov plays in the Ukraine for Dynamo Dnepropetrovsk.
Tajikistan: ???
Turkmenistan: They have some pro players in Otbozin (211cm, BK Almaty) and Aleksandr Pashkov (BK Almaty) but lost to Mongolia in the Asian games last year.
Afghanistan: All players are U.S. citizen (with Afghani background though), but FIBA may makes an excemption so the country can field a team in Navoi in a FIBA competition for the first time. They were able to beat India in the South Asian Games last year and did well in the Asian Games in 2006. May have a good chance to qualfiy if FIBA lets them play.

Are you sure, that Tajikistan will take part at this qualification?

[Mojado]

Are you sure, that Tajikistan will take part at this qualification?

How about contributing something to this board instead of asking always? "Geben und Nehmen"

Uzebkistan's roster at the military games...should be the same in the qualifiers:

http://www.rio2011.mil.br/results/ENG/BK/BKE133A_BKM400400@@@@@@@@ENG_number=3.htm

[tmlouk]

KAZACHSTAN plaing with just 3 guys of their SENIOR NT TEAM there:

Rustam Murzagaliyev (193-G/F-92)
Vsevolod Fadeykin (206-C-85) of BK Astana
Maksim Smirnov (200-F-86) of BK Almaty Alma-Ata
Dmitriy Klimov (200-F-88) of Barsy Atyrau
TIMOSHIN Aleksey
Vasili Savchenko (189-G-87) of Barsy Atyrau
Yuriy Kozhanov (194-G-90) of BK Almaty Alma-Ata
Ivan Nechayev (186-G-82) of Barsy Atyrau
Dmitriy Gavrilov (203-F-86) of Barsy Atyrau
Ivan Kulkin (195-F-88) of BK Atyrau

But maybe that`s also team for the qualifiers, if the rumors about the financial problems are true

[Walken]

Tajikistan: ???

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://nav.uz/news/news_city/10062-basketbolisty-zavoevali-kubok-uzbekistana.html

maybe Kyrgyzstan will participate instead Tajikistan. but who knows: its Central Asia - everything is decided in the last 5 minutes

[Mamo Rafiq]

Afghanistan Basketball

Hello Friends,

As the Head Coach for the Afghanistan National Team I am honored to join everyone on this blog. I always read comments on here, but decided to join the fun.

We are working out all the final details so we are prepared to compete at the FIBA Middle Asia Zone Qualifying tournament. I believe we are scheduled to play Turkmenistan on July 30, 2011.

At this time we are having several setbacks with our VISA support and also finalizing all of our airfare. The team is prepared to play and we hope to be extremely competitive at this tournament.

Look forward to hearing from you all and thanks for all the great details on the blogs. Take Care!

-Mamo Rafiq

[sinobball]

Hello Friends,

As the Head Coach for the Afghanistan National Team I am honored to join everyone on this blog. I always read comments on here, but decided to join the fun.

We are working out all the final details so we are prepared to compete at the FIBA Middle Asia Zone Qualifying tournament. I believe we are scheduled to play Turkmenistan on July 30, 2011.

At this time we are having several setbacks with our VISA support and also finalizing all of our airfare. The team is prepared to play and we hope to be extremely competitive at this tournament.

Look forward to hearing from you all and thanks for all the great details on the blogs. Take Care!

-Mamo Rafiq

Hey coach, welcome!

I have a question about the Afghan team. I've read that most of them were born in the USA, could you enlighten us on this? Is this the "VISA support" you were referring to?

Afghanistan is a good team, I remember the CBA team Shanxi with 2 imports lost to them in a 2010 Taiwan tournament.

[Mamo Rafiq]

Yes, several of our players are Afghan-American. Most were born in Afghanistan and came to the US as refugees in the early-mid 80's. We are set to receive our VISA from the Uzbekistan Embassy tomorrow and will depart for the tournament on Wednesday July 27, 2011.

The communication from the Uzbekistan Basketball Federation and Middle Asia Zone has not been great. At this moment an exact schedule or teams has not been released. We are under the impression that our first game is on July 30, 2011 versus Turkmenistan, but are not 100% sure.

I have requested more information several times and am hopeful to hear back soon. If anyone on the thread has further info it would be great to share it on here. Does anyone know the gymnasium location? Hotels near the gymnasium location?

Thank you in advance. Thank you for your comment about our team and the victory versus Shanxi. That was a great win for us and we had such a great time in Hua Lien, Taiwan.

-Mamo

[gary81]

HEY,COACH

I am very surprise to hear that it seems you know so little about the game. today is july 25, three days before qualifier, they even don't tell you how many teams will attend or an exact schedule? I don't know either....
As a chinese basketball fun, my friends and I all hope Afghanistan can come to Wuhan.when refer to Afghanistan,we all think of war and reconstruction there.
so we want to see basketball there, hope you can get the qualifier!
If you come to Wuhan on september, maybe I will cheer for your team with my friends !
best wishes!!

[Mamo Rafiq]

Gary81

Thank you very much for your kind words. We were honored to participate in the 2010 Asian Games. Our experiences in China were amazing and the main attraction was the people and the hospitality.

Our goal is to compete at the highest level. We must first participate in the Middle Asia Zone and God willing we will have a chance to play in Wuhan.

I will keep you all posted as we will learn of our VISA situation tomorrow. At this time we believe Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan are the (3) teams who will compete for the 16th and final spot in Wuhan.

Take Care!

-Mamo Rafiq

[gary81]

hi~coach

wish your VISA situation good results.

only 3 teams participate in the Middle Asia Zone?

I think Uzbekistan maybe your biggest opponent.

would you like tell me your team's training situation or introduce some players of your team? I will share them with my friends.

anyway~come on and fighting!!!!!!!!!!!!

see you in Wuhan !!!!!!!!!

[usausa]

Coach Rafiq,

What is your roster for this upcoming championship?

And may I ask, would you be able to get copies or pictures of the boxscores from the tournament? I am a huge statistics collector, its my hobby. All around the forums I ask for statistics from different tournaments. I feel like Uzbekistan won't help much and if you had the chance to get these stats, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Also, I would like to wish the team good luck! Living here in the US I follow the international scene, but I follow Asia a lot more than anywhere else. I root for this team because all we hear about is the war over there...and I think that this basketball team is one of the great stories from the country. I was disappointed when India beat you guys in the Asian Games, I thought you guys were gonna pull it out. But the SAF Games triumph last year is something I am sure you are all proud of. I hope it works out for you guys in the qualifier, Afghanistan is a real quality side and will give teams trouble if they make it to Wuhan.

Thanks,
Martin

[usausa]

Wish I could get a better translation.
Article

But it looks like Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan are participating in the 4-day event. My guess it that it will be a sinlge round robin format.