Saturday, December 04, 2010

2010-11 UBA season to begin

Taiwan's University Basketball Association (UBA) will tip off its 2010-11 season on Dec. 5 as National Taiwan Normal University is eying for its third straight title in the men's division while Chinese Cultural University is going after its fourth straight crown in the women's division.

The men's division starts on Dec. 5 and the women's division starts on Dec. 13, according to the Chinese Taipei University Sports Federation (CTUSF).

Sixteen teams will enter the men's division preliminary round, which will split the 16 teams into two eight-team group. Top three teams in each group advance to the quarterfinal while the 4th and 5th place teams vie for the remaining two seeds in the wildcard round.

Defending champion NTNU is still favored to win it all with its strong roster. The NTNU players include four active SBL players -- Chien Chia-hung of Pure Youth, Lo Yu-chun and Tsai Chun-ming of Dacin and Chang Jung-hsuan of Bank of Taiwan -- and promising underclassmen Sang Yi-ching, Chou Po-chen and Hung Kang-chiao.

Lo was the MVP in the UBA Finals last year. Sang Yi-ching and Hung Kang-chiao, both came from two-time defending high school champion Song-shan High School, were named high school MVPs in 2009 and 2010 respectively.

These facts pretty much tell you how strong a team NTNU really is.

In the women's division, 12 teams will be split into two six-team group in the preliminaries with top three teams automatically going to the quarterfinal. The remaining teams will play in the wildcard round for two quarterfinal seeds.