Basketball: Japan women’s head coach Toru Onzuka to step down

TOKYO (Kyodo) — Toru Onzuka will step down as head coach of the national women’s basketball team with his successor to be named within the year, the Japan Basketball Association said Wednesday.

The 45-year-old Onzuka led Japan to the recently completed Paris Olympics, but his contract will not be extended. The association is looking into whether it will ask men’s head coach Tom Hovasse to stay on in his current position.

The men’s team is scheduled to play Asian Cup qualifying games in November.

Both the women’s and men’s teams made first-round exits in France, losing all three of their group-stage games.