Saturday, March 29, 2003

A-League: Tien Lei out of action, HS kids can play

Dacin forward Tien Lei broke his right hand in a motorcycle accident and will be out of action in the upcoming A-League regular season, which will tip-off on April 1st. Without Tien, it will be very hard - almost impossible - for Dacin Construction to overtake Yulon in the A-League.

Coming off a close 1-2 defeat in the President Cup Final to Yulon earlier this year, Dacin had high hope for the upcoming season because they are a young team on the rise.

Fortunately, they will have NT member Wu Dai-hao, who will graduate this summer from Tsai-shin HS, to boost their frontline. Hsu Shi-chin and Chen Tse-wei, both from Nan-shan HS, will also join the team.

CTBA, SHSSF(High School Sports Federation) and the Deparment of Education have agreed last week to make high school players who won't graduate until June available for the A-League teams. High school basketball season has concluded but the players won't leave school till June. In short, they haven't graduate yet. The decision raises criticism from observers.

Thursday, March 20, 2003

TPEC wins 8th straight UBA title

TPEC(Taipei Physical Education College) held off a late rally by Fujen University and won its 8th straight UBA(University Basketball Alliance) title last night, beating Fujen Univ. 107-95 in the tile game. TPEC has now won 80 consecutive games in the UBA.

PG Hsu Hao-cheng led TPEC with 29 points and 4 steals. SG Chang Chi-feng came up with 22 points. Chou Shih-yuan and Lee Chi-yi had 18 and 17 points respectively. Yang Che-yi led Fujen Univ., who made 6 consecutive three-pointers late in the 4th quarter to cut the dificit down from 21 points to 8, with 23 points.

NTNU edged NTCPE, 69-66, in the 3rd-place game. NTUA(National Tawan University of Arts) beat Chinese Culture Univ., 90-75 to finish 5th. NT center Tsun Wen-din had 34 points to lead NTUT(National Taipei University of Technology) past TNIT(Tung-nan Institute of Technology), 88-73, in the 7th-place game.

Tuesday, March 18, 2003

SINA reluctant to play in Div-II

SINA Lions, who pulls out of China's CBA and goes back to Taiwan after two years, is not happy with the decision of CTBA board meeting, which asked them to play in Division II instead of Division I. SINA may refuse to play in the Division II and opt for holding a tournament of their own or simply go on a campus exhibition tour.

According to CTBA ruling, any NEW team has to start up from Division II before going up to Division I. The top two teams of Div-II will play the bottom two teams of Div-I in the classification series. The top two teams in the series stay/or go up to Div-I in the next phase. Losers stay in Div-II.

If SINA decides to play, finishes in the top two of Div-II and the top two of the classification series, which is easy for them, it can join the Division I in the President Cup later this year(but not the A-League regular season, which starts April 1st).

Wu Dai-hao leads Tsai-shin to back-to-back HBL titles

Led by tournament MVP Wu Dai-hao, Tsai-shin High School repeats as HBL(High School Basketball League) champion by beating Hsin-yung High School, 68-57 and 55-47, in the two-game final series. Tsai-shin wins its third HBL titles in school history.

Wu Dai-hao, who was selected to the national team as a high school freshman and became the youngest NT player ever three years ago, was named tournament MVP, averaging 16.5 points, 17.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 4 blocks in two games. He also leads the league in rebounding and blocks.

Wu will enroll at National Taiwan Normal University(NTNU) and make the school an instant contender in the UBA(University Basketball Alliance). He will team with Tien Lei, Ho Sho-jen -- both NT members - to take a shot at the school's first ever UBA title.

At the same time, Wu is expected to join Tien Lei again and sign with A-League team Dacin Construction, who lost to Yulon in this year's President Cup finals, 1-2.

-- Men's Awards
MVP: Wu Dai-hao(Tsai-shin)
Freshman of the Year: Jian Jia-hong(Tsai-shin)
Scoring Leader: Chen Shi-jay(Tsai-shin)
Rebounding Leader: Wu Dai-hao(Tsai-shin)
Assist Leader: Hong Chih-shan(Tsai-shin)
Steals Leader: Hong Chih-shan(Tsai-shin)
Blocks Leader: Wu Dai-hao(Tsai-shin)

-- Men's 3rd-place Series: Song-shan HS beat San-min HS
Game 1: 62-53, Game 2: 59-59

-- Women's Finals: Tamshui Business HS beat Hai-shan HS, also winning consecutive HBL titles.
Game 1: 59-51, Game 2: 88-81

-- Women's 3rd-place Series: Jin-O HS beat Hu-jiang HS
Game 1: 80-75, Game 2: 63-46

-- Women's Awards
MVP: Shen Bi-hua(Tamshui)
Freshman of the Year: Lee Wan-ting(Tamshui)

TPEC, Fujen Univ. meet in UBA Finals

TPEC(Taipei Physical Education College) edged NTNU(National Taiwan Normal University), 60-55, in the UBA semifinal tonight as TPEC kept its 79-game winning streak alive and set up the final clash with Fujen University, who beat NTCPE(National Taiwan College of Physical Education), 69-60, in the other semi.

Chou Shi-yuan's two fastbreak layups helped TPEC overcome an 8-point deficit in the final 5 minutes. With almost every player on its roster starting for A-League teams, TPEC will look for its 80th consecutive victory tomorrow and go for an unprecedented eighth consecutive university league champion.

* Notable A-League players on UBA Final Four teams
(School, player, A-League team)

TPEC - Hong Chi-chao(Yulon), Chou Shi-yuan(Yulon), Lee Chih-ming(Yulon), Lee Chi-yi(Mars), Yang Che-yi(Mars), Chen Shi-nian(Taiwan Beer), Chang Chi-feng(Dacin), Lee Feng-yong(Dacin), Wu Jun-hsiung(Taiwan Beer), Wu Chih-yuan(Taiwan Beer), Yo Yu-lun(Taiwan Beer), Hsu Hao-cheng(Bank of Taiwan)

Fujen Univ. - Yang Yu-ming(Jutai Tech), Shin Jin-jan(Yitong), Kao Jian-wei(Yitong), Hu Yu-wei(Jutai Tech), Yeh Shu-wei(Dacin), Wu Yi-min(Jutai)

NTNU - Tien Lei(Dacin), Lin Kuan-lun(Dacin), Ho Sho-jen(Bank of Taiwan), Wu Yong-jen(Bank of Taiwan), Hsu Chen-wen(Jutai Tech)

NTCPE - Fan Gun-shian(Dacin)

Friday, March 14, 2003

HBL Finals tip off Saturday

Led by youngest NT player Wu Dai-hao, defending champion Tsai-shin High School will meet "Cinderella" Shin-yung High School in the 2003 HBL Finals this weekend. The teams will play a two-game series, as well as the third-place series between Song-shan High School and San-min Highs School.

5th-8th place: 5. Chian-shu HS ; 6. Gao-yuan HS ; 7. Nan-shan HS ; 8. Miao-li Business HS.

SINA pulls out of China, CBA

SINA Lions owner Daniel Jiang announced that the team will pull out of China and the CBA. Citing financial difficulties, disppapointing results and disappointment toward various league situations, SINA -- the first team ouside of China to join the CBA -- will abruptly end its two-year run in China's CBA.

SINA, with majority of players coming from Taiwan, finished a disapppointing 7-19 record this season. It's a nosedive turn-around compared to the playoff appearance last season, its first year on the league. SINA will head back to Taiwan again and re-join the A-League, which will start its regular season on April 1st.

SINA official said that the team lost 1.3 million USD this season. It's too much a burden for Daniel Jiang, who owns SINA 100%, to go another season. And because SINA is a team from Taiwan, it's almost impossible for SINA to get a hand on promising Chinese players, who are often "controlled" by the sports administration of their provinces.

Also, SINA thinks it has been put to disadvantage by Chinese referees. It lost a total of six games with losing margin under 4 points. With the CBA's officiating heavily favors local(home) team, SINA claims, it's hard for them to win any close game.

Chinese basketball administration has agreed to let SINA come back to Taiwan, after it completed a best-of-five series with Shanshi Dongshen. Loser of the series will be dropped down to Div-II along with Hong Kong Flying Dragon, who finished dead last in the league with only one win in 26 games.