Beyond the court: Korean university basketball finds new connections with continental league

HANGZHOU, China — When Yonsei University and Korea University took the court at the Binxing Gymnasium in Hangzhou, China, the familiar chants and rhythmic cheers felt like a home game transported across the West Sea.

The cheering scale may be smaller than the roaring crowds surrounding the historic Seoul rivalry, but the heart and passion remained unmistakably the same.

Yet once the opening tip-off arced upward, it became clear this was more than just a relocated basketball game. Beneath the familiar colors and fight songs, a larger experiment in Asian university sports was quietly taking shape.

Yonsei and Korea University, along with teams from China, Taiwan, Japan, Mongolia, the Philippines and Australia, convened in Hangzhou for the Asian University Basketball League (AUBL), a competition designed to establish a continental platform for men's collegiate hoops.

Korean teams on the Asian stage

At the second edition of the tournament, which ran from Aug. 2 through Tuesday, Yonsei, champion of the league’s 2024 pilot season in Hong Kong, and Korea University, winner of five consecutive domestic University League championships from 2021 to 2025, brought their familiar intensity to the international hardwood before a pan-Asian audience.

This year’s tournament proved more challenging for the Korean contingents.

Both teams advanced from the group stage but were eliminated in the quarterfinals. Defending champion National Chengchi University (NCCU) edged Yonsei 72-67, while Korea University lost 78-71 to Waseda University of Japan, which eventually finished in third place.

A consolation matchup that would have seen the two Korean rivals face each other in a seventh-place game was ultimately called off as Typhoon Dolphin approached Hangzhou on Aug. 9.

Both teams packed up and left early, anticipating flight cancellations and worsening weather conditions.

Building a continental stage for college sports

Though many might assume that Asia’s university-level basketball lacks opportunities to compete on the international stage, it’s not entirely new to it.

The Asian University Sports Federation has been running the Asian University Basketball Championship since the first edition was launched in 1998 in Manila. The competition has been staged periodically in various Asian cities over the years, including Manila, Cebu and Bangkok.

The AUBL, however, seeks to build on that existing framework with a different model: Rather than bringing teams together for an international tournament once every few years, it aims to make cross-border competition a regular part of the university basketball calendar.

Its planned home-and-away format is designed to give teams repeated opportunities to play one another throughout the season, with a centralized postseason to follow.

Backed by sports figures including Joseph Tsai, David Blitzer, Marc Lasry and Chinese basketball icon Yao Ming, the league aims to develop a sustainable continental platform for university basketball.

“We want to build a competition platform among Asian universities that doesn’t just belong to a single market,” Jay Li, CEO of the AUBL, said in an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily. “For a long time, university teams in Asia developed within their own domestic systems, which only allowed limited opportunities to compete internationally without a home-and-away format.”

“What we are trying to do here is to break down the walls and create a very inclusive global sports ecosystem,” Li added.

The league’s geographic reach is expected to continue expanding as it moves toward a regular-season format, with the goals of including more universities from more countries and visiting more Asian cities for future tournaments, according to the AUBL CEO.

Exchange beyond the court

For players, students studying abroad and spectators alike, the international experience is not limited to competition.

The tournament offered them an opportunity to experience cultures beyond their own through the people they met around the games.

Students who came with an interest in other countries could interact directly with their peers and athletes, while the international setting created opportunities for conversations and connections that would be difficult to find in a domestic university competition.

“I’m interested not only in the sport itself, but also in seeing how cultural exchange happens through sports,” said a Chinese student nicknamed Liqi, who completed her master’s in Sports Management at Korea University last year. “Many people came to Hangzhou not only to watch the games, but also to experience that kind of cultural exchange.”

The exchange extended to the players, who shared meals, traded contact information and got to know one another away from the competition.

“We competed hard on the court and learned a lot about other players’ play styles, but off the court, we were learning about each other even more,” said Yonsei player Choi Young-sang. “In many different ways, we were able to gain really valuable and unforgettable experience.”

Some of those interactions happened informally, while others came through activities organized around the tournament.

Six players, including Yonsei’s Kim Yoon-seo and Korea University’s Yoo Min-soo, took part in a cross-cultural photo shoot connected to fashion magazine Hypebeast, giving them another chance for off-the-court interaction.

These interactions were small, but they reflected a broader purpose of the AUBL: using university basketball to bring students and young athletes from across Asia into regular contact with one another.

Looking ahead: Starting with Korea

The upcoming season, which will be the first to incorporate a home-and-away regular season format, will begin in Seoul.

“The next season will start in Seoul, though the specific venue is still being finalized,” AUBL CEO Li told the Korea JoongAng Daily. “Under the expanded league, Korea will get three spots, which I think is relatively generous considering the number of university teams. This shows how much value we place on Korea and the Korean market. Korea is one of our key markets.”

Regarding the performance of the two Korean universities, Li did not view their quarterfinal exits as a failure, but rather as a stepping stone.

“I see the two Korean universities' achievements and performance at this tournament as a success, even if it's regrettable,” Li said. “I think they were really dedicated to our league and showed great performance.”

“I hope their dedication, along with our relationship with Korea, will help bridge us with Korea’s basketball fans,” he added.

The final, delayed to Tuesday due to Typhoon Dolphin, ended with a victory for Shanghai Jiao Tong University over the defending champion, NCCU.

BY YOON SEUNG-JIN [[email protected]]