Chen Hsin-an (Source: ESPN Taiwan)
With the scoring title on the line, Yulon let Chen Hsin-an do his thing while dmedia pulled Jon Sanders aside for some stupid reason.
Current scoring leader Chen Hsin-an scored his season-high 38 points Friday against Pure Youth, boosting his chance of winning the regular season honor.
In the dmedia-TB game, however, dmedia head coach Wu Chien-kuo opted to play Jon Sanders for only 24 minutes, saying that he didn't want to let Taiwan Beer, which is expected to be Numen's opponent in the first round playoff, scout their game.
Sanders, who will finish as the rebounding and assists leader easily, ended up scoring only 9 points. It was not surprising that Sanders was not a happy man after the game.
Personally, I was stunned at Wu's post game remarks, in which he said that his decision and Sanders' discontent came from "different philosophies of the East and the West."
Well, it's a regular season game that did not affect the postseason matchup. Dmedia will meet Taiwan Beer anyway. And Sanders might very well be the first player in SBL history to top three major statistic categories -- scoring, rebounding and assists. I believe it's going to be sort of like Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point record that will never be broken. So why not let him go for the record?
Preventing opponents from scouting? Are you kidding me? These players meet year round. Every game was on TV. Some of the players on both teams are college teammates and former teammates. And that game was the fifth meeting of both sides. Preventing opponents from scouting?
I always have a hard time figuring out some of Taiwanese basketball coaches...
March 15
Dacin 101-89 BOT
Dacin: Su Yi-chieh 19p+5rb+6a, Wang Chih-chung 19p, Lin Yi-hui 18p+7rb
BOT: Hsu Chih-chan 25p+12rb, Chuang Hsiao-wen 16p+8rb+5a
PY 88-86 TM
PY: Chen Shih-chieh 28p+5a+5s, Chien Chia-hung 21p, Doug Creighton 19p
TM: Hung Chih-chao 17p+8rb, Hsu Wei-sheng 12p+10rb, Chen Hui 15p+6a, Lai Kuo-hung 18p+8rb
March 14
TB 77-74 dmedia
TB: Yang Ching-min 18p, Ho Shuo-cheng 15p, Lo Hsing-liang 13p
dmedia: J. Sanders 9p+13rb, Lin Kuan-lun 18p
Yulon 107-98 PY
Yulon: Chen Hsin-an 38p+8rb+5a, Yang Che-yi 11p
PY: Doug Creighton 21p+9rb, Tsai Wen-cheng 17p, Kao Li-min 15p