Friday, May 26, 2006

Guanhu Cup Day 2 - Yulon routed Videoland

Led by Chou Shih-yuan's 20 points, Yulon routed Videoland 90-61 Thursday and took a 2-0 lead in Group A of the 2006 Guanhu Cup Invitational. Taiwan Beer and Kyong Hee University tied for the lead at 2-0 in Group B.

**May 25 Results:
Yulon 90, VL 61
Spring Cooking Oil 89, ETSN 86
TB 98, YMY 97
Dacin 96, BOT 90
Kyong Hee Univ. 104, YMY 83

**Prelim Standings:
Group A: TB 2-0, Kyong Hee Univ. 2-0, YMY 1-2, Spring Cooking Oil 1-2, ETSN 0-2
Group B: Yulon 2-0, Evessa 1-0, Dacin 1-1, BOT 0-1, VL 0-2

**Remaining Schedule:

5/26
12:00 Yulon vs. BOT
14:00 YMY vs. ETSN
16:00 VL vs. Dacin
18:00 Kyong Hee Univ. vs. TB
20:30 BOT vs. Evessa

5/27
10:00 Evessa vs. Yulon
12:00 ETSN vs. TB
14:00 Kyong Hee Univ. vs. Spring Cooking Oil
16:00 VL vs. BOT
18:00 Dacin vs. Evessa

5/28
11:00 A4 vs. B4 (7/8 place)
13:00 A3 vs. B3 (5/6 place)
15:00 A2 vs. B2 (3/4 place)
17:00 A1 vs. B1 (Championship)
19:00 Closing Ceremony

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Guanhu Cup Day 1 - Spring Cooking Oil dropped two straight

Chen Hsin-an played his first SBL game, although not an official one, in more than a year donning Yulon uniform and scored 27 points in Yulon's 102-87 win over Dacin in 2006 Guanhu Cup International Invitational Tournament, which invited 10 teams to the eastern city of Hualien.

Call it bad luck. Jet-legged Spring Cooking Oil from the Philippines, which didn't arrived in Hualien until early Wednesday, suffered two losses in the first day.

The tournament, which entered its fifth year, was organized by local Basketball Committee of Hualien County. Three foreign teams -- Spring Cooking Oil, Kyong Hee University from South Korea and Osaka Evessa of Japan's BJ League, along with all seven SBL teams participated the tourney that runs from May 24-28.

Game Results:
YMY 101, Spring Cooking Oil 98 (Geremy Robinson 40 points)
Kyong Hee Univ. 81, ETSN 71
Osaka Evessa 103, Videoland 88 (Jeff Newton, Lynn Washington and Matt Lottich cmbined for 55 points)
Yulon 102, Dacin 87 (Chen Hsin-an 27 points, Tien Lei and Lee Fong-yong of Dacin did not play)
TB 87, Spring Cooking Oil 77 (Lin Kwan-lun 24 points, Lin Chi-jay did not play)

Monday, May 22, 2006

Guanhu Cup Invitational Roster

Teams: 10 (All seven SBL teams will participate.)
Date: May 24-28
Place: Hualien, Taiwan

Rosters of three foreign teams:

Kyong Hee University

H. Coach Choi, Boo young
A. Coach Kim, Hyun gook

No, name, DOB, Po., Ht., Wt.
8 Shin Myung ho 83.10.8 G 184 80
14 Woo Seung youn 84.2.4 F 192 90
25 Kang Woo hyung 84.6.12 G 190 86
4 Hwang Min woo 85.4.22 G 181 76
13 Kim Myung hoon 85.11.8 C 200 93
15 Kim Min soo 82.1.16 C 200 92
21 Kim Jai Young 85.1.3 F 188 85
7 Jeon Geon woo 86.5.8 G 185 78
12 Lee Seung hyun 86.6.26 F 190 83
31 Kim Jung hyun 87.1.20 G 183 75
33 Hwang hyung jun 85.3.25 F 195 87
5 Park Chan hee 87.4.17 G 191 83
9 Park Byung gyu 88.1.22 F 188 89
10 Kim Myung deok 87.5.1 F 192 80
11 Jung Jae chul 87.8.19 G 183 78
23 Park Sung min 87.4.17 F 190 85
32 Kim Dae yung 87.1.23 F 197 87


Osaka Evessa

Head coach: Kensaku Tennichi
Assistant coach: Yasushi Higa

Name, No., DOB, Ht., Wt.
David PALMER 12 1982.01.12 201cm 97kg
Matt Lottich 33 1982.07.29 193cm 90.7kg
Lynn WASHINGTON 44 1978.04.03 200cm 102kg
Jeff NEWTON 50 1981.01.04 205cm 102.1kg
Kazuya Hatano 10 1982.04.19 192cm 85kg
Satoshi Takeda 6 1980.05.21 185cm 72kg
Haruyuki Ishibashi 5 1973.12.03 173cm 70kg
Haruhito Shishito 13 1982.12.23 173cm 75kg
Tomoya Nakamura 19 1983.02.04 198cm 84kg

Philippines Spring Cooking Oil

Coaching staffs: Lawrence Chongson, Efren Garcia, Victor Sanchez

Name, Ht., Po., Nationality
Marlon Kalaw 5'10" Guard Filipino
Nino Marquez 5'11" Guard Filipino
Harold Sta. Cruz 6'3" Forward Filipino
Kenneth Coyukang 6'5" Center Filipino
Jason Cuevas 6'3" Forward Filipino
Valentin Domingo 6'6" Center Filipino
Mar Reyes 5'10" Guard Filipino
Rodel Manuel 6'3" Forward Filipino
Randy Lopez 6'5" Center Filipino
Benedicto Membrere 5'10" Guard Filipino
Efren Garcia Jr. 5'9" Guard Filipino
Geremy Gerald Robinson 6'3" Forward American

Monday, May 15, 2006

Tien Lei wins third straight MVP

Dacin forward Tien Lei won his third straight Most Valuable Player award Monday in the SBL Annual Award Ceremony, where he also received three other awards -- scoring leader, rebounding leader and the Best Five award.

Two-time SBL Finals MVP Tsun Wen-din was also named to the Best Five and received awards as the defensive player of the year and the blocks leader.

-- MVP
Tien Lei(Dacin) 92

Lin Chi-jay(TB) 87
Tsun Wen-din(Yulon) 26
Chien Ming-fu(BOT) 23
Lo Shin-liang(YMY) 1

-- Most Improved Player
(Top three vote-getters)
Lin Chun-feng(BOT) 60
Yua Ying-li(BOT) 54
Hsiao Yuan-chan(ETSN) 54

-- Defensive Player of the Year
(Top three vote-getters)
Tsun Wen-din(Yulon) 117
Chang Chi-feng(Dacin) 44
Chen Chih-chun(Yulon) 38

-- Rookie of the Year
(Top three vote-getters)
Su Yi-chieh(Dacin) 150
Chien Jia-hong(YMY) 56
Cheng Jen-wei(ETSN) 28

-- Coach of the Year
(Top three vote-getters)
Wei Chen-ming(BOT) 114
Lee Yun-kwang(Yulon) 87
Liu Jia-fa(Dacin) 28

-- Best Five
F Tien Lei(Dacin)
F Lin Chi-jay(TB)
C Tsun Wen-din(Yulon)
G Chien Ming-fu(BOT)
G Lo Shin-liang(YMY)

-- Scoring Leader: Tien Lei(Dacin)
-- Rebounding Leader: Tien Lei(Dacin)
-- Assists Leader: Wu Yong-jen(BOT)
-- Blocks Leader: Tsun Wen-din(Yulon)
-- Steals Leader: Chien Ming-fu(BOT)

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Liu Hwa-lin named ETSN head coach

Liu Hwa-lin, who has been ETSN's assistant coach in the past two years, was named ETSN head coach, local newspaper Min-sheng Daily reported Sunday.

Liu replaced Lee Yun-hsiang, who resigned after a 11-19 season and failed to lead ETSN to the playoffs.

The news was a surprise as rumors had been flying since February that Taiwan Beer assistant coach Chiu Da-tsun will take over ETSN next season.

Meanwhile, ETSN veteran Chou Jun-san will serve as an assistant coach next season, the Ming-sheng Daily reported. But Chou didn't rule out the possibility to play again because he still thinks he can contribute.

The new coaching staff will debut in Guanhu Cup Tournament, which will be played from May 24-28 in the eastern city of Hualien.

A total of 10 teams were invited to the short tournament, including all seven SBL teams and three foreign teams -- Spring Cooking Oil of the Philippines, Kyong Hee University of South Korea and Osaka Evessa, the inaugural champion of Japan's BJ League.

ETSN was the socond team making coaching changes since the end of the regular season. On May 2 YMY hired Hsu Chin-tse as its new head coach to replace Liu Jun-ching.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Renegade teams compromised after meeting CTBA

The Super Basketball League (SBL) will have a fourth season, according to the provisional agreement of a meeting between CTBA (Chinese Taipei Basketball Association) and the SBL teams which planned to established a league of their own.

Once again, teams which wanted to break away from the CTBA wavered after meeting CTBA President Wang Jen-da and decided to stay in the SBL.

However, they still called for the CTBA to improve marketing, ticketing, officiating and game administration.

A five-team coalition of ETSN, Taiwan Beer, Bank of Taiwan, Videoland and YMY had been privately working on a plan to establish a new league in the past two months.

Not surprisingly, Dacin Tigers, which is owned by Wang Jen-da, had been excluded by the coalition.

Yulon Dinos had said it wanted to be neutral and go with the better proposal.

Team representatives agreed in the meeting Wednesday that:

1) With the success of the SBL so far, it's better to unite than devide and all teams will stay in the SBL.

2) The SBL Committee, which conprised of nine members from seven SBL teams, CTBA and NCPFS (National Council on Physical Fitness and Sports), is the highest-governing body of the league. And the committee authorizes CTBA to operate the SBL.

3) If SBL teams still favor the committee's independence from the CTBA, the issue will be on the committee agenda next week. No matter what happens, CTBA will still be in charge of the ticketing and game administration.

Taiwanese basketball clubs had tried several times to break away from the control of CTBA ever since the closure of CBA (Chinese Basketball Alliance), Taiwan's first pro league that shut down in 1999.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Five teams consider leaving SBL, setting up new league

A rumor saying that five teams consider leaving SBL and establishing a new league will be on the table again as the CTBA convenes a SBL Committee meeting Wednesday to discuss the league's future and try to smooth out the differences between SBL teams and the federation.

Local news reported in mid-April that five teams -- ETSN, Videoland, Bank of Taiwan, Taiwan Beer and YMY -- talked in private about establishing a new league. The rumor, however, was put out during the SBL playoffs in the past few weeks.

Dacin Tigers, owned by CTBA President Wang Jen-da, was obviously left out by the five-team group which wants to break free. Wang said Dacin would not join the proposed new league, which is possible to be named Taiwan Basketball League (TBL).

As usual, three-time SBL champion Yulon Dinos said it wanted to remain neutral on the issue before furthur development.

It's not the first time in SBL history that teams talked about leaving the league. Most teams have been complaining for a long time that the CTBA failed to establish a marketing strategy for the league to increase revenues. They are not happy to the distribution of league revenue either.

Actually, most teams were not happy with anything from officiating, venue, ticketing, scheduling to game administration. But the CTBA did not do anything to improve and would not let go of the marketing power, which is why five teams want to establish a new league, they said.

Sunday, May 07, 2006

SBL Finals - Yulon three-peats on Chou Hong-yu's buzzerbeater

Chou Hong-yu tipped in Tsun Wen-din's missed layup at the buzzer as Yulon Dinos beat Taiwan Beer 74-73 in Game 5 of the 2006 SBL Finals Sunday and completed an unprecedented three-peat.

Yulon, which won the series 4-1, was still the only champion the SBL has ever known. It beat Sina 3-0 in the 2004 SBL Finals and swept Dacin 3-0 in the 2005 SBL Finals.

Tsun Wen-din, the 6-8 center who averaged 20 points and 9.8 rebounds in five games, was voted Finals Most Valuable Player for the second straight year.

Taiwan Beer had trailed for almost the entire game but took the lead in the last minute after Shan Wei-fan made two free-throws and made the score 73-72. It looked like Taiwan Beer would extend the series to the next week.

With 6.0 seconds left, Yulon had the final shot. Tsun Wen-din received the inbound pass at the top of the key and took the ball to the basket. The ball bounced off the rim but Chou Hong-yu, who was left alone under the basket as his defender switched off to double Tsun, tipped in a bankshot as the final buzzer sounded.

Game 5: Yulon 74-73 TB (Half 43-33)
Yulon: Wei Yong-tai 19p, Chou Shih-yuan 16p, Chen Chih-chun 12p, Tsun Wen-din 11p+5rb+7TO, Lee Hsueh-lin 10p, Chou Hong-yu 6p
TB: Chen Shih-nian 13p, Ho Sho-jen 12p, Hsu Hao-cheng 11p+8rb+5a, Shan Wei-fan 11p, Lin Chi-jay 8p+10rb

SBL Finals - Yulon pounded TB to take 3-1 lead

Two-time defending champion Yulon Dinos pounded Taiwan Beer 110-81 Saturday to take a convincing 3-1 lead in the 2006 SBL Finals. It will try to win its third SBL title in three years in Game 5 Sunday night.

Yulon led 60-37 at halftime and increased the lead to as many as 40 points early in the second half.

The game was very similar to Game 3 Friday night. The difference was Yulon became the enforcer Saturday and led from start to finish in an almost-perfect game. It shot 59% from the field and made 11 of 15 3-point shots while dishing out 22 assists as a team.

Game 4: Yulon 110-81 TB (Half 60-37)
Yulon leads 3-1
Yulon: Tsun Wen-din 20p(8-11 FG)+12rb+4a+5blk, Chen Chih-chun 19p(7-8 FG)+4s, Chou Shih-yuan 18p(7-11 FG, 4-6 3-PT), Wei Yong-tai 16p(8-10 FG), Lee Hsueh-lin 8p+8a+4s
TB: Lin Chi-jay 17p+5TO, Ho Sho-jen 16p, Shan Wei-fan 14p, Lin Kwan-lun 11p

Saturday, May 06, 2006

SBL Finals - Taiwan Beer won Game 3

Taiwan Beer held off Yulon's furious rally in the final quarter and pulled off a 82-74 victory in Game 3 of the SBL Finals Friday, cutting Yulon's series lead to 2-1.

In one of its most sluggish games in recent memory, Yulon trailed by 20 points in the end of the 3rd quarter, 64-44. But Chou Shih-yuan came alive in the final 10 minutes and made a seemingly blowout a close game again.

Chou, who was scoreless in the first half, made four of five 3-pointers in Yulon's 18-0 run that opened the final period, cutting the deficit to two in five minutes. Yulon then pulled ahead with another 6-2 run after scoring 18 straight.

The Beermen refused to drop to a 3-0 hole. Led by Lin Chi-jay, who hurt his left ankle for the second time in three weeks in the 2nd quarter but insisted on playing in the second half, Taiwan Beer closed out the game with a 16-4 run. Hsu hao-cheng's three with 2:10 to play iced the game.

Lin Chi-jay, who led TB with 22 points, stepped on Tsun Wen-din's foot when going for a loose ball and twisted his left ankle, the same ankle he injured in the last game of the regular season, in the second period.

Point guard Hsu hao-cheng had 10 points and a team-high 7 rebounds. Chen Shih-nian had 14 points for TB.

Yulon experienced an embarrassing first half, when it managed to scored just 22 points and everything was not going well. Its outside shots weren't falling. Tsun Wen-din was being double-teamed and committing turnovers.

Yulon didn't score in the 2nd quarter until 4 minutes left in the half. Its 9 points in the second quarter was an all-time low single-quarter record in a SBL Final game.

Chou Shih-yuan's team-high 23 points all came in the second half. He made 6-of-12 3-pointers in the game. Tsun Wen-din collected 22 points and 10 boards but had 6 turnovers. Chen Chih-chun had 11 points.

Yulon's 8-game winning streak in the SBL Finals was snapped.

Game 4 and Game 5 will be played on Saturday and Sunday.

Game 3: TB 82-74 Yulon (Half 37-22)
Yulon leads 2-1
TB: Lin Chi-jay 22p+6rb, Chen Shih-nian 14p+6a, Shan Wei-fan 12p, Hsu Hao-cheng 10p+7rb
Yulon: Chou Shih-yuan 23p(6-12 3PT), Tsun Wen-din 22p+10rb+4a+6TO, Chen Chih-chun 11p+6rb

*Dacin swept BOT in 3rd-place series

Tien Lei had 28 points and 14 rebounds and led Dacin to a 94-87 victory over Bank of Taiwan to win the third-place series 3-0.

Game 3: Dacin 94-87 BOT (Half 56-38)
Dacin: Tien Lei 28p+14rb, Chang Chi-feng 22p, Chen Tse-wei 13p
BOT: Chen Shun-hsiang 22p, Chuan Hsiao-wen 16p+12rb, Yang Chin-min 16p, Yua Yin-li 12p+3s+2blk

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Hsu Chin-che named new YMY head coach

Former Tsai-shin high school head coach Hsu Chin-che was named YMY head coach Tuesday, replacing ex-head Liu Jun-ching as the third coach for the team in the last three years. Hsu became the youngest SBL coach in history at 33 years-old.

Hsu's assistants will be former YMY point guard Chun Wei-kuo, who retired after the season, and Hua Chin-kuo, who served as Hsu's assistant in Tsai-shin high school.

Liu Jun-ching was promoted to the position of team consultant. Former assistant Chen Yong-le will leave the coaching staff.

YMY also announced that veterans Liu Yi-hsiang and Lo Shin-liang will shoulder dual responsibilities in the upcoming season, sharing some training duties as players. Liu will be in charge of tutoring bigmen while Lo will be the team's shooting coach.

Hsu Chin-che led Tsai-shin high school to four HBL champions and was the head coach of Taiwan Junior NT in 2002 and 2004, finishing 6th- and 5th-place respectively.

Tsai-shin HS, which has produced several outstanding Taiwanese players including Tsun Wen-din, Wu Dai-hao and Chen Shi-jay, shut down its basketball program prior to the 2005-06 season.

YMY only won six games in the past two seasons.

SBL Finals - Yulon routed TB to take 2-0 lead

Yulon finally played like it should have played. In the first convincing victory in weeks, Yulon routed Taiwan Beer 92-62 to take a 2-0 lead in the SBL Finals Sunday night.

Meanwhile, Dacin also led Bank of Taiwan 2-0 in the best-of-five third-place series and was one win away from claiming the series.

Chou Shih-yuan kept his hot shooting in the first quarter, dropping three 3-pointers and quickly opened up the score for Yulon. Dinos' effective defense forced Taiwan Beer into an array of bad shots, also limiting TB leading scorer Lin Chi-jay to his playoff low 3 points in the game.

Game 2: Yulon 92-62 TB (46-24)
Yulon: Tsun Wen-din 27p+11rb+5a, Lee Hsueh-lin 18p, Chou Shih-yuan 16p(4-6 3PT)
TB: Lin Kwan-lun 12p+5a, Wang Jian-wei 10p

3rd-Place Series
Dacin leads 2-0

Game 1: Dacin 111-94 BOT (65-40)
Dacin: Tien Lei 34p+17rb, Lin Yi-huei 22p, Cheng Chan-jun 15p, Su Yi-chieh 12p+6a
BOT: Yang Chin-min 26p, Lin Chun-feng 24p+8a

Game 2: Dacin 108-101 BOT (57-52)
Dacin: Tien Lei 25p+6rb+3blk, Chang Chi-feng 24p+8rb+7a, Yen Jia-wei 21p(5-8 3PT), Lin Yi-huei 17p
BOT: Yang CHin-min 31p+10rb, Lin Chun-feng 21p, Ju Yong-hong 19p+8rb