The 2011 Probation Cup Invitational Tournament will be held from Oct. 12-16 in the eastern Taiwan city of Hualien with nine teams in contention for the tourney, which is in its tenth year.
Malaysian national team, Elite Talent Exchange and seven SBL teams will be divided into two groups in the preliminary round with top four teams in each group advancing to the knock-out second round, where top two teams in each group will meet in a cross-over semifinals and the third- and fourth-ranked teams meet in 5-8 place classification games.
The Elite Talent Exchange, a US team put together by agents, is sponsored by Heins Baby Corporation. SBL teams which haven't hired imports would take this tournament as an opportunity to look at the American players.
Brackets and game schedule:
Group A: Yulon, Taiwan Mobile, Elite Talent Exchange, Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor, Pure Youth
Group B: Dacin, Malaysia NT, TB, BOT
Oct. 12 (Wednesday)
0930 Yulon-TM
1130 ETE-PY
1330 Dacin-BOT
1530 Malaysia-TB
1930 PY-Yulon
Oct. 13 (Thursday)
1130 Yulon-KKL
1330 TM-PY
1530 TB-BOT
1730 Dacin-Malaysia
1930 KKL-ETE
Oct. 14 (Friday)
1130 TM-ETE
1330 Malaysia-BOT
1530 PY-KKL
1730 ETE-Yulon
1930 Opening ceremony
2000 TB-Dacin
Oct. 15 (Saturday)
1200 Game E: A3-B4
1400 Game F: B3-A4
1600 Game C: A1-B2
1800 Game D: B1-A2
Oct. 16 (Sunday)
1200 Game 7/8 place: Losers of E and F
1400 Game 5/6 place: Winners of E and F
1600 Third place Game: Losers of C and D
1800 Championship: Winners of C and D
2000 Closing ceremony
In related news, Yulon is reported testing 2.01-meter forward Kevin Johnson, who came from NCAA Division-II Humboldt State and played in Cyprus last year. Johnson averaged 7.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game with Keravnos Strovolou of the Cyprus league last season.
Taiwan Beer reportedly will test Jason McCoy, a 2.08-meter center out of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and played last year in Belarus, averaging 17.6 points, 8.6 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game.
Kevin Johnson
Jason McCoy
(Photos: China Times, Eurobasket.com)