TOKYO (FIBA Asia Women's Cup 2017) - The Japanese Basketball Association (JBA) have announced that their women's national team will be handled by a new coach - Tom Hovasse - starting this year. Japan have reached the nexus of Asian women's hoops, and they are hell-bent on maintaining their supremacy in the region.

Of course, they want to qualify for the FIBA Basketball Women's World Cup 2018, too, which means they will have to finish among the top four teams in this year's FIBA Women's Asia Cup, which will include Australia and New Zealand. Even further down the road, Japan are aiming to make it to the podium at the Tokyo Olympics 2020.

The naming of the 49-year-old Hovasse is historic in the sense that he is the first-ever non-Japanese head coach of the women's national squad. He replaces the successful Tomohide Utsumi, who steered Japan to back-to-back titles in the last two editions of the FIBA Women's Asia Cups and helmed the Akatsuki Five women all the way to the Quarter-Finals in their exciting Olympic run last year.

"This is a decision for Japanese basketball to make further progress," JBA Technical Director Tomoya Higashino told the Japan Times. "With 2020 in mind, we needed to make a change."

One advantage Hovasse has is that he is not a stranger to the JBA's national women's program. He was Utsumi's assistant the last few years and is a familiar face on the sidelines at the Women's Japan Basketball League (WJBL). After the league ends in April, he is expected to devote full-time to the national team.

"His players trust him, he is very detail-oriented as a coach and he has a lot of passion and leadership," added Higashino. "So we believe he's the right person to lead the team."

Hovasse, who hails from Colorado in the United States but whose children were born in Japan, graciously accepted the position and relishes at the opportunity to push his players to give their very best.

"I always tell my players to challenge themselves to get better," Hovasse said to Japan Times. "I've had a phenomenal challenge in the past eight years, and I thought this would be my next challenge."

Immediately among Hovasse's priorities is to sharpen Japan's traditional strengths on the court like quickness, passing and shooting while also increasing the national team's physicality in the face of bigger foes.

"Japanese players are smaller, but they play fast and their team work is better than any other country," explained Hovasse. "Offensively, we are going to play fast, with a lot of transition."

Even at the onset, Hovasse sees no problem having his players adjust to his style and the demands of playing for flag and country, especially with Tokyo 2020 in their sights.

"It doesn’t matter whatever country you are from, Japanese women work harder than any other country I've seen." - Tom Hovasse

Japan's first mission is traveling to Bengaluru, India, for the FIBA Women's Asia Cup 2017 in July.

FIBA