Asian college basketball is about to get much bigger — and Pacific Rims has the news first.
AUBL co-founder and CEO Jay Li joins Ric Bucher and Greg Stolt and reveals that the Asian University Basketball League is expanding to 18 teams for its first full home-and-away season beginning in November — with an ambitious plan to reach 30 teams next season and ultimately create an NCAA-style college basketball ecosystem across Asia.
Li, the former chief of staff to Yao Ming during his tenure running the Chinese Basketball Association, explains how lessons learned from the NBA and CBA are being applied to a league whose social-media engagement has exploded by as much as 10X, while revenue has doubled and live viewership has surged.
The conversation also explores why college basketball historically struggled to become part of Asia’s professional pipeline, how Yao helped change that equation in China, and why attitudes toward combining education and elite basketball have shifted.
Then there’s the Cinderella story that showed exactly what the AUBL could become: Shanghai Jiao Tong University stunning traditional powers, beating teams it had never defeated before and producing a championship run Li compares in excitement to Linsanity.
Can the AUBL create the school loyalty, packed arenas, rivalries and postseason drama that have made American college basketball a phenomenon? Li lays out a vision featuring multiple conferences, regional tournaments, a championship week and a legitimate pathway for Asian prospects from high school to college, the NCAA and professional basketball around the world.
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 – Welcome to Pacific Rims
00:51 – Jay Li joins Ric Bucher and Greg Stolt
01:43 – How the AUBL grew from an experiment into a league
02:13 – EXCLUSIVE: AUBL expands to 18 teams
03:08 – Preparing for the first home-and-away season
04:31 – What Jay learned from the NBA and CBA
06:34 – Who is the AUBL trying to reach?
08:11 – AUBL’s explosive growth: engagement, revenue and viewership
10:09 – Why Asian college basketball was historically overlooked
12:09 – Connecting college basketball to Asia’s pro leagues
13:50 – How the Asian basketball development system has evolved
15:35 – Education vs. turning pro: changing attitudes in Asia
16:33 – China’s traditional junior-team development system
17:08 – How Yao Ming helped change China’s basketball pipeline
18:20 – Why Chinese families increasingly value education
19:29 – Is Shanghai now China’s basketball capital?
21:06 – Shanghai Jiao Tong’s stunning Cinderella story
22:20 – The buzzer-beater and championship run nobody expected
23:34 – Creating an American-style college basketball atmosphere
24:27 – Competitive balance and the uncertainty that makes sports work
27:13 – When Jay realized the AUBL concept could really succeed
28:40 – The challenge of going from tournaments to home-and-away games
30:07 – Building campus basketball culture across Asia
30:42 – Why relationships with universities and federations matter
31:16 – Taking AUBL games to Seoul, Tokyo, Manila and beyond
31:44 – Jay Li reveals the AUBL’s grand vision
32:07 – 18 teams now — 30 teams next season
32:19 – Could the AUBL become Asia’s NCAA basketball system?
33:14 – Building a pathway from Asian high schools to college and the pros
33:41 – How long will the full vision take?
34:01 – Final thoughts and what’s next for Pacific Rims
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