Chinese Taipei's Lu Cheng-Ju sets sights on top four finish at EABA 2017
TAIPEI (EABA Championship 2017) - Chinese Taipei may be in rebuilding mode, but veterans like Lu Cheng-Ju still believe they are more than capable of having strong showing in this year's competitions.
With so many young players moving up the ladder to feature in the men's national team, this is the time Chinese Taipei will need seasoned campaigners like Lu to provide guidance and share the fruits of their years of experience playing at the international level.
Lu's skills and experience will be essential at the East Asia Basketball Association (EABA) Championship 2017 in Nagano, Japan from June 2-7.
As Taipei begins preparations for that competition, Lu shared his thoughts on how the national pool is shaping up and what their chances for success are.
Chinese Taipei will play in the EABA Championship 2017 with five places in the FIBA Asia Cup 2017 up for grabs. How do you like the national team's chances of doing well?
Frankly speaking, I don't have many predictions on how well the Chinese Taipei national team will do this year, but I am sure that all the other guys on the team will have the same goal as me, which is to do our best to help the team win. If I must set a goal on the team's achievement, I will have to say that we want to be one of the top four teams.
The Chinese Taipei team in recent years is in a so-called rebuilding phase, which means the main goal is to develop young players and prepare them to be ready for high-level international competitions. Basketball in Chinese Taipei is still moving forward and improving gradually. Although there are a number of players playing overseas, the local players still do a good job maintaining the competition at a high level. The league and the organizations also try to help in many ways, such as importing foreign players with high quality, in order to boost the level of competition in the country.
It seems like Chinese Taipei is in transition with some veteran players retiring. Can you still see the team being a contender in the future?
Although our former captain Lin Chih-Chieh has retired from the national team, we still have a lot of experienced players and some young talents on the team. My earnest wish is that we can still be very competitive and do our best together to win as many games as possible. Liu Cheng and Chou Yi-Hsiang right now are the two rising stars among Taipei players. Both of them have physical talent and a great mind for the game. I really believe they will be the dependable force for our national team in the future.
Adding Australia and New Zealand definitely has a huge impact on Asian basketball. It's a boost for the level of competitions as a whole. I believe that the Asian powerhouses have what it takes to match up with these two team.
FIBA
