Zhang Ziyu towers in her World Cup debut as 7-foot-3 sensation hopes to get China to quarterfinals

BERLIN — Zhang Ziyu has made quite an impression in her women's FIBA World Cup debut.

While the 7-foot-3 center for China may not have had a breakout game yet, whenever she is on the court she is noticed. She'll try and help China reach the quarterfinals when it faces Puerto Rico on Wednesday in a qualification game.

Paige Bueckers had a moment with Zhang on the court when the U.S. played China in the opener of pool play for both teams. A video went viral of the pair chatting. Bueckers told the AP the conversation was all fun.

"Just banter. Friendly banter. I was trying to figure out how much English she knows," Bueckers said smiling. "So if I was going to talk trash how much she'd understand. I did tell her I was going to block her shot and she just looked at me in disbelief. I don't know if she didn't understand what I was saying or she just couldn't believe that I'd say that to her. Just all fun and games for me."

She only played eight minutes in China's win over Italy to close out pool play, but had eight points and three rebounds. The Italians had to adjust their defense and offense when she was on the court.

"For sure it's weird because it's something not usual, I think it's also challenging because you have to defend a kind of player which you cannot play against every day and for me it's challenging because we have to find different ways to stop her," Italian center Olbis Andre said. "I think we did good in some part of the games, we did worse in other parts of the game, but I think that we will learn from this."

Zhang hasn't talked to the media at all during the tournament, walking through the interview area either smiling or bowing. Players aren't required to talk to the media.

The 19-year-old Zhang started playing basketball when she was 10 or 11, but didn't get serious about it until the last year or so. Former Rutgers player April Sykes, who has been coaching for the past few years, was hired as a skills development coach by China.

She worked with Zhang for a few months earlier this year and said the young Chinese star is very coachable.

"She's funny, likes to play video games, she's a jokester," Sykes said. "She's a kid though. A lot of people think she's 24-25, but she's literally a kid."

Sykes has been watching the games from Atlanta and was proud the other day when Zhang made a lefty shot — something she worked on with her.

"It literally made my day," Sykes said. "People don't realize the progression she's made in such a short period of time."

China teammate Han Xu, who plays for the New York Liberty in the WNBA, praised Zhang's performance at that tournament and said she was ready for the world stage.

"World Cup is a good moment for her, for the whole world to know her," Han said. "I am so excited to play with her again."

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