Thursday, November 29, 2007

Chunghwa Telecom to meet Cathay Life in Finals

Wen Chi had 13 of her game-high 33 points in the regular season finale and led Chunghwa Telecom to a come-from-behind 81-76 wiin over Taiyuan Textile. Chunghwa Telecom will meet defending champ Cathay Life in the best-of-three finals.

Standings:
Cathay Life 11-1
Chunghwa Telecom 6-6
Taiyuan Textile 5-7
Taipower 2-10

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

UBA - TPEC wins 147th straight

北體張羽霖
Chang Yu-lin(Source: UBA)

Chang Yu-lin and Lin Tsun-ching ignited a 25-7 third quarter run and led TPEC to a 83-67 win over NCPES Monday, the opening day of the 2007-08 UBA season. TPEC, which is seeking its 13th straight title, extended its winning streak to 147 games.

Chang Yu-lin led TPEC with a game-high 31 points and 6 steals and Lin Tsun-ching had 14 points. Wu Fong-cheng, the No. 1 draft pick in this year's SBL Draft, had 19 points for NCPES.

TPEC entered the season losing 10 players, including Chen Hsin-an and Lee Chi-yi, among others, because of the implementation of the "25 years-old rule". But it's still one of the strongest teams in the university league with the presence of national team members like Tsun Wen-din, Chen Shih-nian, Lee Hsueh-lin and Lu Cheng-ju.


2007-08 UBA Division I participatory Teams

Group A
Taipei Physical Education College, TPEC
Chinese Culture University, CCU
National Taiwan College of Physical Education, NTCPE
National University of Tainan, NUT
National Kaohsiung Normal University, NKNU
National College of Physical Education and Sports, NCPES

Group B
Fujen Catholic University, FJU
Natioinal Taiwan Normal University, NTNU
Hsing Wu College, HWC
National Taipei University of Technology, NTUT
National Taiwan University of Arts, NTUA
Shih Hsin University, SHU

Monday, November 26, 2007

Jon Sanders back in SBL



Jon Sanders, a 6-6 swingman who played for Videoland Hunters last season, was back in the SBL. This time Sanders will play for a young team named dmedia, which was previously known as ETSN Antelopes before being sold to Segway Technology -- dmedia's mother company.

Sanders averaged for 22.8 points(#2 in the league), 16.1 rebounds(#1) and 1.28(#5) blocks per game with the Hunters and was the primary reason why Videoland improved from 13-17 in the 2005-06 season to 21-9 in 2006-07.

Unfortunately Sanders was edged by Taiwan Beer's Lin Chih-jay, who also won the postseason MVP later, in the regular season MVP voting by a few votes. Personally I would've voted for Sanders, but Taiwanese reporters has had a well-known tendency to vote for locals since the old CBA(Taiwan's defunct pro league) days. So that did not surprise me.

Videoland and Sanders didn't enjoy a successful postseason, losing to eventual champion Taiwan Beer 3-1, although it did beat Yulon 3-1 in the meaningless third-place series.

Sanders will be the only import player in the SBL this season, so it seemed. If you ask me, I think the league and the teams need import players to increase their exposure and strengthen the competition level. The only problem is that nowadays there's still no one willing to make that investment although the SBL did receive some relatively commercial success.

Anyway, Sanders is now back to Taiwan with the new team dmedia, which has a group of young players and a veteran coach Wu Jian-kuo. It will be interesting to observe the progress of this young team.

Check out Jon Sander's web site at MySpace and the group "Pro Ball in Taiwan with Jon Sanders" he started in the Facebook, where he will post a weekly video to update his life in Taiwan during the new season.

Pro Ball in Taiwan with Jon Sander
Jon Sanders MySpace

Friday, November 23, 2007

Cathay Life clinches WSBL regular season title

Not a surprise. Cathay Life clinched the 2007 WSBL regular season title after an 88-68 victory over Taiyuan Textile Thursday with a 8-1 record.

With the regular season still a round robin to go, Cathay Life has also clinched a seed in the best-of-three WSBL Finals which will begin Nov. 30. Cathay Life will be awaiting for its opponent -- either Taiyuan or Chunghwa Telecom -- in the Finals.

Only four teams participated the season which adopts a four round-robins format. That means each team plays a 12-game schedule in the regular season.

Standing as of Nov. 23:
1. Cathay Life 8-1
2. Taiyuan Textile 4-5
3. Chunghwa Telecom 4-5
4. Taipower 2-7

2007-08 UBA tips off Nov. 26

2007 UBA logo

Taipei Physical Education College (TPEC), the superpower in Taiwan college basketball, will seek to extend its 147-game winning streak and the 13th straight title in the upcoming 2007-08 UBA (University Basketball Association) season, which will tip off on Nov. 26.

The UBA will be celebrating its 20th anniversary in the first season it implements the so-called "25 years-old rule, " which means only players under 25 years-old are allowed to play in the league. Chinese Taipei University Sports Federation (CTUSF) said the rule is in line with the regulation of the World University Games.

Implementation of the rule is expected to have a huge impact on all the teams, especially the defending champion. As UBA didn't have an age limit prior to this season, teams were able to put almost all players they want on the court -- undergraduate, graduate and transfer students alike.

Which was why Chien Wei-chuan, the most celebrated women basketball player in Taiwan, was able to enjoy a 10-year UBA career. Ten years! For universities who wanted to keep their best players, all they had to do was getting them to the graduate schools. It's easy.

Not anymore. At least the UBA is doing something right because that was just ridiculous.

Friday, November 16, 2007

2007-08 SBL season schedule released



The 2007-08 Super Basketball League (SBL) season will tip off on Dec. 7 with almost a third of the 105 regular season games being moved outside of Taipei, Chinese Taipei Basketball Association announced.

The regular season will run from Dec. 7, 2007 to Mar. 23, 2008, and the playoff will be held from Apr. 1-22, 2008, CTBA said in its press release.

While 74 games will be played in the main venue Sinjhuang Stadium in Taipei County, 31 games will be going south, with 23 games in the mid Taiwan city Taichung City and 8 games in the southern city of Fongshan City, Kaohsiung County.

The firstt round playoff games and the mid season All-Star Game will be played in the Taipei Arena in Taipei City, which has a 15,000 capacity. The best-of-seven Finals will be back to Sinjhuang Stadium.

Seven pre-season games will be played in Jhubei City, Hsinchu County.

The Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium (TPEC Gym), the SBL's main venue in its first four seasons, will not be available as it's under reconstruction. The SBL decided to move games to various cities for fans around the nation.

The third-place series, which is basically meaningless, will not be played.

Monday, November 05, 2007

2007 WSBL season to tip off Nov. 10

The 2007 WSBL (Women's Super Basketball League) season will tip off on Nov. 10 after one-year absence. Four teams -- Cathay Life, Taiyuan Textile, TaiPower and Chunghwa Telecom -- will play in the short three-week season from Nov. 10 - Dec. 2.

Cathay Life, which has won the last 15 titles, will try to go for its 16th consecutive crown.

The 2006 WSBL season was cancelled for the preperation of Taiwan Women's NT for the Doha Asian Games, which will determine the seeds in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Taiwan Women's NT failed to secure the seed after finishing fourth.

Teams will play a total of 12 games in the 2007 season in a four round rboins format. Top two teams will advance to a best-of-three final round while the remaining teams play for the third-place in a best-of-three series.