The girls of the Australian team were smiling like flowers, and Zhang Ziyu, the giant of the Chinese team with 2.28 meters behind him, had already burst into tears. This was the final scene of this year's U18 Women's Basketball Asian Cup finals, Zhang Ziyu tried his best to cut 42 points and 14 rebounds, winning the most valuable player of the tournament, but still could not turn the game around, leaving only a trace of comfort for the MVP of the losing side.
But in this way, the national treasure thigh, who averaged 35 points and 12.8 rebounds per game, was an abandoned player when the U16 national team was selected last year, and it was not until March this year that she was "exceptionally promoted" at the age of 16 and ushered in her first national number trip.
In July last year, the U16 national youth women's basketball team went to the Asian Cup, and Zhang Ziyu, who was already the first in the national U15 league scoring list and was 2.27 meters, was not selected for the final list.
Insiders of the Basketball Association once revealed that Zhang Ziyu initially practiced with the U16 national youth women's basketball team for 5 days, but was finally given up for two reasons, one is that "this child has not kept up with the rhythm of the team, and he needs to adjust after practicing for a while", and he did not fully adapt to the team-based training mode and skills and tactics. On the other hand, Zhang Ziyu's parents asked her not to abandon her studies, and while studying in Shandong Province, she received training from the Shandong Provincial Youth Team in her spare time, so the coaching staff of the U16 national youth team thought that the school's learning tasks and schedule might prevent her from training with the national team for a long time.
However, the final result of the tournament quickly hit the decision, and the Under-16 girls won 1-3 and finished sixth out of nine teams, just above Samoa, Syria and Thailand. In particular, the first group stage defeated Japan by 26 points, and the qualifying round lost to South Korea by 21 points, which was almost powerless. directly lost the qualification to participate in the U17 Women's Basketball World Cup the following year, which also became the worst record of the Chinese women's basketball team in the history of the U16 Asian Cup.
Immediately, Wuhan Shengfan Group, which donated 1.2 million yuan to the U16 national youth women's basketball team in 2022 as funds to prepare for the Cup, publicly sent a letter to the Chinese Basketball Association to question, causing an uproar again:
1. Is the Chinese U16 women's basketball team so bad? What was the reason for such a result in the first race?
2. The amount donated is mainly used for intensive training, and this is the result of the five-month intensive training? Is the training camp not in place? Or is it a mistake in the selection of people? Team members can't do it? Or maybe the coach can't?
Subsequently, the Basketball Association completely changed the coaching team, and because the national youth women's basketball team missed this year's U17 World Cup, Zhang Ziyu was not selected for the adult national team for the Paris Olympics. Therefore, in March this year, the U18 national youth women's basketball team recruited her, and finally realized her first experience in international competitions.
Zhang Ziyu scored 19 points on 9-of-9 shooting in 13 minutes of protective playing time in her debut this year, and FIBA officially issued an article for her, which was reported by sports media in the United States, Spain, France and other countries. Then 36 points, 44 points, 34 points, she carried the team all the way forward, avenged last year's miserable losses to Japan and South Korea, and successfully advanced to the finals, not only got the qualification for next year's U19 Women's Basketball World Cup, but also created a number of "the cutest height difference" world famous paintings.
The Chinese women's basketball team was only 4 points behind the strong Australia in the 6 minutes of the fourth quarter, at this time Zhang Ziyu had scored 42 points, not without hope of winning, but the team's continuous immature offensive choices and improper arrangements on the field made the team finally miss the victory, and Zhang Ziyu, who participated for the first time, also looked at the celebratory Australian girl and left tears of regret.
Although people still remember the glory of the Chinese women's basketball team winning the second place in the world in 2022, looking at the performance of the national youth women's basketball team in the past two years, it is better to take precautions and consolidate youth training. In the future, there may really be Zhang Ziyu's lone seedling.
The last sentence, with Zhang Ziyu's current ability, I personally think that it is indeed difficult to adapt to the level of competition of the adult national team, in the next video, let's rationally discuss the three serious weaknesses she has exposed at present.