Eight teams from five countries will play in the forthcoming 2009 Kainan International Basketball Invitational tournament from June 8-11, which is organized by Taiwan's Kainan University, in Taoyuan County, Taiwan.
Last year, Canada's University of British Columbia beat compatriots University of Toronto in the title game.
Participating teams and grouping:
Group A:
Kainan Univ., Taiwan
Bond Univ., Australia
Univ. of Tokyo, Japan
National Central Univ., Taiwan
Group B:
Corvinus Univ., Hungary
Humboldt State Univ., USA
National Taiwan Normal Univ., Taiwan
Shih Chien Univ., Taiwan
The tournament runs from June 8-11 with top two teams from Group A and B meet in a crossover semifinal before the championship game.
NTNU won the Div-I title of Taiwan's university league this year. 13 of 19 players on its roster play in Taiwan's pro league SBL and around 6 or 7 of them are starters. Among the notable players are 6-8 center Wu Tai-hao, who played in the U.S. NCAA Div-II BYU-Hawaii, Su Yi-chieh -- starting point guard of the SBL title team Dacin Tigers, Pure Youth forward Chien Chia-hong and Dacin starting SF Lin Yi-hui.
NTNU also has a junior varsity team. I'm not sure which team is in the tourney. My guess is it sent the A team. If it does, NTNU will be a tough team to beat.
Shih Chien Univ. finished as 6th place in the Div-II this year. I have no idea about the National Central University.
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