According to league sources, Hitachi Sunrockers head coach Shuji Ono is expected to be named the new head coach of the Japanese national team. The 51-year-old former national team point guard carries an impressive resume as he has led two different JBL teams to the JBL Finals, winning the championship once (2001-02 with Toyota). A member of the Japanese national team as a player from 1978-87, Ono coached the Toyota Alvark for 5 seasons from 2000-2005, leading them to the JBL title in his second season at the helm. After leaving Toyota, Ono moved to the Hitachi Sunrockers where he has coached since the 2005-06 season. In the 2008-09 season, the Sunrockers made it all the way to the JBL Finals before losing to the Aisin Sea Horses in the battle of the Takeuchi twins, Joji and Kosuke.

The Japanese national team looks to rebound after the recent disaster at the Asian Championships where they finished in 10th place out of 16 teams. Japan will now be on its third head coach in 2009 alone as they went from American David Hobbs, who either had \'health\' issues or was forced to step down, depending on whose story you want to believe, and Osamu Kuraishi, a member of the Japan Basketball Association\'s board of directors who reportedly was instrumental in bringing Hobbs to Japan in the first place and therefore felt \'compelled\' to take responsibility for the Hobbs mess by taking over the coaching duties himself. Since 2006, the Japanese national team has had 5 head coaches-Zeljko Pavlicevic, Kimikazu Suzuki, David Hobbs, Osamu Kuraishi, and now Shuji Ono .