The 6-foot-8 Filipino-Japanese player first received an invitation from the national team for the first window of the 2023 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers last November.
Basketball player Matthew Aquino has gotten another invitation for Japan’s basketball national team pool.
Aquino joined Japan Basketball Association’s 15-man pool for the 2022 Asian Games, which will take place in Hangzhou, China in September. They held a training camp at the Ajinomoto National Training Center in Tokyo last February 7 to 10.
He is averaging 1.6 points and 1.5 rebounds in 14 games played for Shinshu, and was also part of the Akatsuki Five’s pool for the first window of the 2023 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers.
The 6-foot-8 Filipino-Japanese player first received an invitation from the national team for the first window of the 2023 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers last November.
Unfortunately, he did not make their final line-up.
Completing the pool are FE Nagoya’s Luke Evans, Akita’s Ryuto Yasuoka, Hiroshima’s Ryo Terashima, Mikawa’s Avi Schafer, Hiroshima’s Isaiah Murphy, Shiga’s Koya Kawamata, Shibuya’s Yo Nishino, Mikawa’s Yudai Nishida, Daito Bunka University’s Shinji Takashima, and Tokai University’s Yuki Kawamura and Ren Kanechika.
Aquino does not have a Japanese mother or a father. What the Aquino family has is a Japanese nationality.
His Japanese lineage traces back to his maternal grandmother, whose surname is Toma, and the Japanese citizenship has been passed on to his mother.
This made Aquino’s travel in and out of Japan easy as he holds a Japanese passport. This made the signing with Shinshu Brave Warriors a much easier process. This also means that the 6’7 center won't be strapped by any restriction placed on imports in the B.League.
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