Saturday, June 28, 2003

Chen Hsin-an will tryout for Nuggets summer league team

Chen Hsin-an(aka Sean Chen) will give the NBA his second try this summer. Cut by the Sacramento Kings in last year's pre-season training camp, Chen will tryout for Denver Nuggets' summer league team this year. He will leave for Denver on July 3rd.

Nuggets will hold its summer league team tryout in July 9-12. The team will then enter Southern California Summer Pro League on July 13th, playing a total of four games. Once again, Taiwanese fans will root for Chen to chase his NBA dream.

Taiwanese NT at USBA for US Training tour

Taiwanese NT arrived in USBA(United States Basketball Academy) at Eugene, Oregon for a two week training tour. The team will play 6-8 warmup games with USBA All-Stars and other teams, meanwhile instructed by a coaching staff consisted of Lakers assistant Tex Winter, former Georgia head coach Jim Harrick and former Fordham head coach Bob Hill. The training camp concludes on July 6th.

After the two-week training, six players(Tien Lei, Wu Dai-hao, Tsun Wen-din, Lee Chi-yi, Yang Yu-ming, Yen Shin-shu) will go to Sacramento for another special training camp, which will be conducted by Kings assistants Pete Carril, Terry Porter and guard Bobby Jackson during July 7-16.

CTBA says Taiwan NT is planning to play in an international tournament in Philippines early August, completing the final warmup stage before the Asian Championship.

Taiwanese NT for World University Games

Led by Chen Hsin-an, who graduated from college earlier this year, Taiwanese WUG NT opened its training camp on June 26th in suburban Taipei, looking for its first ever appearance in the World University Games.

Chen was suspended for an year on the senior NT level, after he withdrew from the national team last year and went to NBA's Sacramento pre-season training camp. But Chen is still qualified to play for the WUG NT. There are 15 players on the preliminary roster, which will be cut down to 12 prior to the games, which will be held in Daegu, Korea in late August.

Taiwanese WUG NT 15-man roster:(college, A-League team)

F Chen Hsin-an(TPEC, Yulon); Chang Chih-feng(TPEC, Dacin); Chou Shih-yuan(TPEC, Yulon); Wu Cheng-dao(NTCPE, Jutai); Lin Che-li(Chen-chi Univ., Jutai)

G Hsu Hao-cheng(TPEC, Bank of Taiwan); O-Yang Jin-hen(NTUA, Jutai); Lee Chih-ming(TPEC, Yulon); Chen Shih-nian(TPEC, Taiwan Beer); Jian Ming-fu(CCU, Military)

C Chou Hong-yu(NTCPE-Linko, Yulon); Lee Fong-yong(TPEC, Dacin); Cheng An-jay(CCU, Mars); Ha Xiao-yuan(NTUA, Jutai); Wu Yang-huei(NTUA, Taiwan Beer)

Head Coach: Lee Yun-kwang
Assistants: Dong-fan Che-ter, Chiu Tsung-chih

Actually, Taiwan can send an even stronger team to the WUG. But a couple of top college players were not available since they were selected to the senior NT, which is preparing for the upcoming Asian Championship.

Taiwan is placed in the same group with Yugoslavia(Serbia and Montenegro), Greece and Mexico.

Yen Shin-shu maybe out of Asian Championship

Yen Shin-shu, expected to be the starting PG for Taiwanese NT, re-injured his knee in the Taiwanese NT training camp. Yen probably has no enough time te recover and will be out of the Asian Championship this year. If Yen is out, Chen Chih-chung will take his starting role but Taiwanese NT will be thin at the PG position.

Monday, June 02, 2003

Taiwan NT opens training camp

Taiwan NT opens its training camp today in Songshan High School Gymnasium for the preparation of the Asian Championship, which will be held in Harbin, China in September.

Hu Tsai-lin, head coach of Bank of Taiwan, was added last week as the second assistant coach for the national team. Taiwan NT now completes the 3-man coaching staff with Lee Chin-chi as the head coach, Hu Tsai-lin and Chou Hai-jun(Mars assistant) as assistants.

Almost half of the Senior NT players will also participate in the World Univsersity Games in Daegu, Korea in late August. Taiwan NT is expected to train together with the University Games NT, which is led by former NT head coach Lee Yun-kwang.

Taiwan NT now has 15 players on its roster. The number will be cut to 12 prior to the ABC Championship. But they will bring 15 players to the US training tour. Taiwan NT plans to stay two weeks in the Basketball Academy in Eugene, Oregon, where they will have a couple of warmup games with unknown teams. Word is CTBA will have five younger players stay in the Academy after the camp. The players will be instruted by Sacramento Kings counselor Pete Carril in the extended mini-camp.

Ths status of Men's Asian Championship is unclear. Although the SARS outbreak has been under control in most Asian countries, no one knows for sure what is going on in China. Japan has postponed the Women's Asian Championship. CTBA has decided to suspend the annual William Jones Cup Tournament this year. The latest situation for the ABC Championship and the World University Games remains to be seen.

Chen Hsin-an, who is suspended from the NT competition for a year, is expected to be on the WUG roster.