CTBA will select the 2005 Taiwanese NT following the conclusion of the SBL season and the team will enter the 2005 East Asia qualification in May, Taiwanese news web site UDN.com reported. The qualification games will be held from May 26-30 in Guangdong, China.
According to the report, FIBA Asia informed CTBA about the withdraw of North Korea, which means there are only six teams left in the tournament: Taiwan, China, Japan, South Korea, Japan, Mongolia and Hong Kong.
The reports also says the top five teams in the 2004 FIBA Stankovic Cup -- Qatar, South Korea, Taiwan, Syria and Japan -- have received the automatic seeds in the 2006 Asia Championship. The defending champion China is also guaranteed a spot in Qatar, the host for the 2006 Asia Championship.
All this means the East Asia qualification only decides one seed, between Hong Kong and Mongolia, for the Asian Championship, the story reported.