REGENSBURG (David Hein's Eye on the Future) - Iran's run atop Asia at the senior level is slowly coming to a close which means the country’s title at the 2016 FIBA Asia U18 Championship comes at the perfect time. 

Buoyed by stars such as Hamed Haddadi, Samad Nikkhah and Mahdi Kamrani, Iran collected three FIBA Asia crowns within four championships from 2007 to 2013 - with a shocking Quarter-Final loss to Jordan the only slip-up in 2011. 

But last summer’s FIBA Asia Championship saw China reclaim their spot atop the continent - thanks to a new brand of exciting up-tempo ball which was way too much for Iran, who lost to China in the Semi-Finals before taking third place. 

"There's a ton of good, talented young players who I think deserve a chance to compete at the highest level.” Bauermann

Iran coach Dirk Bauermann decided to inject some much-needed new blood into the team for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Italy with 20-year-old Behnam Yakhchali and 22-year-old Sajjad Mashayekhi both making the team. Bauermann also included some even younger players on his 23-man provisional squad for the OQT, nominating 19-year-olds Navid Rezaeifar, Ali Allahverdi and Salar Monji and 20-year-old Mohammad Yousof Vand - all who played at the 2015 FIBA U19 World Championship.

"There's a ton of good, talented young players who I think deserve a chance to compete at the highest level," Bauermann said on the Iranian Basketball Federation's official website at the time of his naming the provisional group of players. 

That brings us to the 2016 FIBA Asia U18 Championship. Iran were not expected to really challenge for the title despite being hosts. They lost to Japan and Korea in the Group Stage and were facing the task of taking on three-time reigning champions and undefeated China in the Quarter-Finals. 

But Iran dug deep in front of the home fans in Tehran and held off the Chinese and then beat Korea in the Semi-Finals. And in the final, Iran knocked off Japan for their third U18 title - and first since 2008. 

Mohammad Hossein Jafari will soon be playing for Iran's senior team.

The impressive part of Iran's title run is that they took down the other top five teams in the final standings over the final four games. Iran knocked off fourth placed finishers Lebanon in the final Group Stage game and then won the final-like battle with China, who finished fifth. They followed that up by coming back to beat both third-placed Korea and runners-up Japan - against whom they lost in the Group Phase. 

The clear leaders of the Iranian team were leading scorer Mohammad Hossein Jafari and Mr. Double-Double Amirhossein Khandanpoor. The 1.93m Jafari scored 15.8 points per game while shooting 42 percent from three-point range and grabbing 1.5 steals per game. And the 2.03m Khandanpoor averaged 11 points, 10.2 rebounds and 2.4 blocks including a 17-point, 21-rebound showing in the Semis against Korea. 

Both will soon make in-roads into the senior team while the 2000-born Amirhossein Rezaeifar probably will need extra two or three years though he played well as a 16-year-old, averaging 5.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in less than 16 minutes per game, including double-doubles in both the Semi-Finals and Final. 

The Iran basketball leaders have shown that they really respect and value the performance of their youth teams. Navid Rezaeifar, Allahverdi and Yousof Vand all played at the 2014 FIBA Asia U18 Championship, where Iran went to the final and lost to China. But all three are knocking on the door of the senior team. 

The Iranians already have made some big strides in their rebuilding of the senior national team as Nikkhah and Kamrani did not play at the OQT in Italy with Haddadi being the only main veteran from the FIBA Asia Championship-winning era.

And the FIBA Asia U18 champions got lucky with perfect timing to start looking at making their next step the senior team.

David Hein

FIBA

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