Lebanon Asia Cup Final now
Lebanon beat Jordan in the semi finals after a huge win over China in the quarters.
Yousef Khayat played 8 minutes in the Semi final game and contributed 3 points on 3/4 FT. He went 0/1 from the field and had 1 Reb, 1 ast and 1 TO.
Catch the Final against Australia now on ESPN+. Lebanon are huge underdogs and have never won the Asia Cup, but anything can happen in a one-off game. This tournament so far has been like March madness but with pros.
Go Cedars and Go Blue!
So ... a different continent is favored to win the FIBA "ASIA" Cup?
Weird.
I assume that is because there are not enough countries around Australia with teams to field an "Australian" or "Oceanic" tournament. Certainly not a competitive one. Maybe New Zealand and who else?
Austrasia?
FIBA Oceania does actually exist with 22 teams, one of which is Australia. But, as you may have guessed, those teams are typically outclassed heavily by Australia and New Zealand. So FIBA Oceania and FIBA Asia combine for this specific tournament which allows Australia and New Zealand to compete against teams closer to their level.
Lebanon looks overmatched early. Australia's center is blocking everything inside and their shooters are canning everything from outside.
Great game and a great comeback. 2 point loss after being down 16. Lebanon can be proud of their run but Australia was the better team.
In fact, this whole tournament was great entertainment during an otherwise lull in sports for me.
From the M perspective, I'm still really excited about Khayat but I don't see him contributing in any meaningful way next year. He didn't do much in this game and got pulled a couple times after bad plays, albeit forced by a superior team. Probably a redshirt, camp Sanderson and then he will get unleashed. I'm not a recruiting expert but I see more of a Caris timeline than Franz. Hope I'm wrong we'll see.
His mistakes in this tournament were more mental than physical. I actually think he’s more likely to contribute early than I did before. These games are against physically developed adults. His competition for minutes are Jett, TWill, Baker, Barnes, Glenn and Tschetter. Jett & TWill are going to get significant minutes. The rest are up for grabs and I think he’s just as likely to get 15mpg as the latter three.
I don’t think he’s on the Franz track and will likely never be as good as him (probably never good as Caris either) but he’s more physically ready than Caris was as a freshman IMO.
It’s probably important to realize that he’s one of the youngest players in the tournament, if not the youngest, and he’s playing against grown men. Most of which have professional experience.
Australia may not have brought their A squad, but they’re the 3rd ranked team in the world and have arguably the second best pro league in the world. His struggles were certainly expected. I wouldn’t look into it too much.
Phenomenal experience for Youssef. He was playing with and against grown-ass men, NBA fringe guys and overseas pros. What kid couldn’t benefit from that experience coming into his freshman year of college?