National Men's Basketball team faces first test after training camp

(DONGGUAN, May 26) -- On May 28 there will be a friendly match between the Chinese Men's National Basketball team and NCAA finalist, the Memphis Tigers. According to the Chinese Basketball Association, donations will be collected at this game to be contributed to relief efforts to rebuild southwest China after the recent earthquake.

This is the first formal match for the Chinese National team after last summer's training tournament, a real test thought up by head coach Jonas Kazlauskas, who has to decide the final squad for the Beijing Olympics. Fans are also anxious to see what improvement the two month training camp has brought to the team.

The Memphis Tigers are the runner-up of last season's NCAA tournament. Their franchise player Derrick Martell Rose is hyped as the first pick in this year's NBA draft. However, Rose and other draft-enrolled players won't show up in this match, thus nobody knows how well the team will do without these core players.

Similarly, the Chinese National team is also missing key players, such as Yao Ming, Wang Zhizhi and Yi Jianlian. Actually, since last summer, the Chinese National team hasn’t played one match with full force. Most of their focus laid on the development of young players like Ding Jinhui. This will be the same scheme for Wednesday's match against the Tigers.