Collegiate hoops showcase a slam dunk for fellowship

Pac-12's annual season opener in China forging strong ties on and off the court

The thunderous sound of cheering at Shanghai's Baoshan Sport Center on Saturday provided yet more proof that the Pac-12's annual Chinese showcase is a trip well worth making for the US college basketball program.

The Colorado Buffaloes defeated the Arizona State Sun Devils 81-71 in the fifth edition of the event. It's the fifth straight year that the conference has staged an opening-week contest in China, with the Pac-12 still the only American sports league, collegiate or professional, to host a regular-season contest here.

The aim of the Pac-12 China Game is two-fold: Treating Chinese fans to high-quality hoops and forging ties through sports.

"The tenet of our Pac-12 Global Initiative is that higher education and sports have the power to foster learning, understanding and togetherness between people and cultures," said Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott.

"This is the first time many of our student-athletes from ASU and Colorado have traveled internationally.

"We truly believe it is experiences like this that have the power to change our student-athletes' lives and open their minds to experiences beyond sports, and beyond their own corners of the world."

The week of activities also included the fifth annual China-US University Sports and Education Summit, attracting hundreds of student-athletes, coaches, scholars, experts and industry representatives to Shanghai University of Finance and Economics last Friday.

"We live in an era of internationalization, and sports are a platform for youth from all over the world to communicate," said Xue Yanqing, senior vice-president of the Federation of University Sports of China (FUSC), at the summit.

"Sports have a comprehensive influence on students. Students benefit from sports even after graduation and learn how to work with others in their careers.

"Sports are also good for students' health, and we hope sports become an intrinsic part of their lifestyles.

"The US is famous for its collegiate sports culture, which is very beneficial to students' personal development. We have to recognize sports' influence on education.

"I want to thank the Pac-12 and the US universities that have supported the work of FUSC for the past eight years."

Chinese Basketball Association chairman Yao Ming was a keen spectator at the game, with the Pac-12 committed to donate $10,000 to his youth-focused charitable organization, the Yao Foundation, for the third straight year.

"As the chairman of the CBA, Yao Ming has a vision for Chinese basketball development," said Shen Zhen, senior vice-president of FUSC.

"To level up the overall strength of Chinese basketball, we must start from the foundation of the pyramid - in high schools and collegiate basketball.

"We don't lack for talented youngsters, but what we need more of is better coaching. FUSC is working with the CBA to nurture more professional coaching in Chinese schools.

"Yao Ming supports collegiate basketball because he supports the overall development of Chinese basketball. What we want are the same."

As part of the exchange, the visiting US universities played a pair of friendlies in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, last Wednesday, with Colorado beating a unified team from Tsinghua and Suzhou universities (109-42), and Arizona State victorious over a combined Peking University/Suzhou lineup (113-64).

As the scorelines suggest, the games were tough lessons for the Chinese players, but ones that they agreed were well worth learning.

"It was a great opportunity for us to play a highly competitive game against some of the best players of the Pac-12 Conference," said Peking player Zhang Ning. "It's a very rare chance so I value it very much.

"Although it was a heavy defeat, all we wanted to do was to play our best in each attack and defense. We wanted to show the spirit of Chinese student-athletes."

Peking's Zhu Mingzhen also relished the step up in class. "We can communicate and learn from them. Through the friendly, we know there's still a lot things to be improved," he said.

Meanwhile, commissioner Scott hailed event co-organizer Alibaba Group "as a tremendous partner".

While Alibaba Sports continues to support the game in the areas of sponsorship, ticketing and marketing, long-time Pac-12 partner FUSC extended its strategic collaboration with the conference through 2020.

The Pac-12 announced before the start of Saturday game's that the University of Washington and Tulane University will meet in 2020 in the sixth edition of the China showcase.

"Since 2012, the Pac-12 has been fortunate to join forces with FUSC and to have such a great partner and friend to the Pac-12 since the beginning," Scott added.

"We value what we've been able to create with FUSC's help and guidance, and believe strongly in their mission to promote exchanges with university sports associations around the world.

"Over the past seven years, the Pac-12 and FUSC have hosted competitions and coaching clinics in China and the US, as well as facilitated educational people-to-people exchanges between our two organizations."