Japanese Take Crash Course in Basketball at Dominguez Hills : Goodwill: To help prepare for Asian Games, 13 players from national team worked with Toro Coach Dave Yanai.

Over the past eight summers, Cal State Dominguez Hills men’s basketball Coach Dave Yanai has made six trips to Japan to conduct clinics for coaches and players.

This summer, Yanai didn’t have to travel farther than his own back yard to conduct a clinic for the Japanese.

With hopes of improving its skills in preparation for the Asian Games in November, Japan sent 13 players and three coaches from its national team to Dominguez Hills to work with Yanai in a 12-day clinic that ended Saturday.

Until this year, Yanai had worked primarily under former Olympic and college coach Pete Newell. Newell has been working with the Japanese as a coach and adviser since the early 1960s.

“I brought Dave over to Japan maybe eight or nine years ago to work with the high school coaches, and he did a wonderful job and he’s been back in various capacities in the years since,” Newell said.

Yanai, who has coached the Toros for 16 seasons, said it was through his relationship with Newell and the Japanese Amateur Basketball Assn. that he was chosen to work with the team.

“I’ve been close to coach Newell over the years and Pete first introduced me to their national organization,” Yanai said. “With my being one of the junior coaches (working with Japan) from America, he asked me if I would be able to help them out this time.”

He was happy to oblige and put the squad through a rigorous two-a-day practice regimen with assistance from the Japanese coaches and assistants at Dominguez Hills. The team also had three scrimmages against Biosports, a team from the UC Irvine Summer Pro League.

Yanai does not speak fluent Japanese, and the contingent from Japan did not speak much English, but the language barrier was not a problem.

“We’ve been able to get along very good,” Yanai said. “I know enough Japanese, and the Japanese coaches and players know enough English that we understand each other on the court. The combination of their bum English and my bum Japanese makes it work.”

Occasionally, a player would misunderstand Yanai’s instructions and improperly run a drill. However, Yanai was able to keep it to a minimum by using simple basketball terminology.

During practices, Yanai would shout “fast break” or “full-court press” and utter a phrase in Japanese to the coaches and players to start a new drill or get his point across.

“We come from the same direction as far as our coaching philosophy goes,” Newell said. “The only difference is he knows regular Japanese and I only know nightclub Japanese. But seriously, he has a very good working relationship with NKK (a Japanese steel conglomerate that owns a pro team) and I’m glad to see him working so well (with the national team).”

The coaches of the Japanese national team were impressed with Yanai’s work. They are striving to improve their team’s mental toughness and defensive skills.

“Learning from Mr. Yanai, (the players) can learn how to concentrate better and think more about defense,” Japanese National Team Coach Yoshinori Shimizu said. “It’s not only the players who can benefit, but also the coaches. His coaching itself is very good and he’s very good with details.”

Yanai realizes that the development of the Japanese program will not happen overnight. Especially with a team that has an average age of 25, considered young by international standards.

Japan’s biggest challenger at the Asian Games is expected to be China. The top two finishers at the Asian Games will advance to the World Championships next July in Toronto.

“There was a real strong feeling for having me work with them here and bringing them together to work in my university’s setting,” Yanai said. “It’s easier for me because I already have the facilities here that I’m accustomed to. It’s also a better situation for getting American players to come out and help them scrimmage.”

One of the players competing for Biosports and scrimmaging against the Japanese team was former Cal State Dominguez Hills player Anthony Blackmon, who competed professionally for Toshiba in the Japan League the past four seasons.

Blackmon, who has played against most of the members of the Japanese national team in the pro league, thinks the players will benefit considerably from their scrimmages against an American pro team.

“It’s a lot more physical of a game here, and they’re getting ready for the Asian Games,” he said. “Playing against us will help when they have to go against that kind of competition.”

Yanai’s reputation with the Japanese has grown considerably the past two years after he started working with NKK’s team. That team has shown considerable improvement.

The Japanese national coaches are hoping for similar results.

“We want to continue to work with him and keep our program improving,” Shimizu said.

Shimizu intimated that he would like to bring the team back next summer if it qualifies for the World Championships.

Yanai would welcome the opportunity.

“Newell has said to me that when you’ve coached for this long, it’s nice to be able to give something back to others and help the game grow in other places,” he said. “I’m just very happy to be working with the Japanese national team and helping them out.”