China has been piling up medals again in London. Yet the team playing perhaps the most popular sport in the nation has struggled mightily at these games.

China's men's basketball team went 0-5 in pool play and looked lost without the retired Yao Ming. In one game it trailed Brazil by more than 40 points.

Center Wang Zhizhi says he told coach Bob Donewald in 2010 that "there are two most difficult jobs in the world right now: One is saving the miners in Chile and the other is taking over Chinese men's basketball."

Donewald says it was an honor to be chosen for the post-Yao rebuilding process and just qualifying for the Olympics was a big step in the right direction for his team.

"But once we got here, it was a lot to chew," Donewald says. "Just a little bit too much."

— Jon Krawczynski — Twitter http://www.twitter.com/APKrawczynski

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EDITOR'S NOTE — "Eyes on London" shows you the Olympics through the eyes of Associated Press journalists across the 2012 Olympic city and around the world. Follow them on Twitter where available with the handles listed after each item.