Iran wins Asian University Basketball Championship

Amir Amini had 20 points, 6 assists and four steals and M. Akbaribisheh had 16 points and four steals as Iran University Select beat Taiwan University Select 78-71 in the championship game of the 2008 Asian University Men's Basketball Championship (AUB) on Oct. 16.

Taiwan finished as runner-up for the second time. It lost to Korea two years ago in the inaugural AUB.

Korea's Hanyang University edged Notre Dame University of Lebanon 74-72 in the bronze medal game.

The home boys failed to cut down on their turnovers once again after squandering a 23-point lead in a upset loss to Iranians in the preliminary round. Taiwan committed 22 turnovers in the final game as Iran pulled off a 15-4 run in the final three minutes for the victory.

Wu Tai-hao had 13 points and 11 rebounds and Lin Ching-pang had 11 points and 8 boards.

When Taiwan meets Korea on the basketball court, you expect something interesting to happen, which was the case in the cross-over semifinal. The game was stopped three times because of confrontation, protests and near-brawls. It ended with six disqualifications -- four for Taiwan and two for Korea -- and 59 foul calls.

Taiwan beat Hanyang Univ. 88-80 thanks to Chen Shun-hsiang's 34 points and the 26 for 30 free-throw shooting as a team. Wu Tai-hao, who had a techincal and fouled out of the game, had 14 points, 7 rebounds and three blocks.

Guangdong University of Technology, which produced current New Jersey Nets forward Yi Jianlian, and City University of Hong Kong failed to make the semifinals.

Lin Ching-pang.

Wu Tai-hao scored over Iranian players.

Wu Tai-hao dunked on a Guangdong University of Technology defender.

Chen Shun-shiang scored 34 in the championship game.

Chaotic scene in the Taiwan-Korea game.

(Photo source: UDN.com, AUB official web site)

2008-09 HBL season set to begin

2008-09 high school basketball season is set to begin next Monday with 22 men's teams and 13 women's teams battling for the bragging rights of Taiwan high school ball. All eyes will be on Nanshan High School and Haishan High School, the defending men's and women's champions.

"Shan" means "mountain" in Chinese. In the past years, Nanshan and Haishan have become two mountains that are difficult for their opponents to conquer, with Haishan winning three straight women's finals and Nanshan taking home two men's titles.

The new season will start with the Northern Division preliminaries, which will be played in Nanhu High School in Taipei from Oct. 13-19. Eleven of 15 teams in the division advance to the second round. Five of the seven teams in the Southern Division advance to the second round after a preliminiary round in Fengshan Vocational High School from Oct. 15-18 in southern Taiwan.

The 16-team men's second round will start Dec. 25 in Banciao, Taipei. Women's preliminary round will start on the same day and conclude on the final day of the year. Organizers decided to push back the women's schedule because Taiwan will be sending its national team to the Asian U-18 Women's Championship in Indonesia in Novermeber.

Asian University Men's Championship to tip-off in Taipei

The second Asian University Men's Basketball Championship will be played in Taiwan from Oct. 11-16 2008 as six teams from Taiwan, China, Korea, Lebanon, Iran and Hong Kong will vie for the ultimate crown of Asian collegiate basketball.

According to the information from the official web site, both Taiwan and Iran fielded university select teams for the competition. City University of Hong Kong will represent Hong Kong while Hanyang University represents Korea. China sent Guangdong University of Technology to the event. And if I'm not mistaken, Notre Dame University - Louaize will represent Lebanon.

All games will be played at the stadium of the Chinese Culture University in Yangmingshan, Taipei.

Korea won the title in the first edition of AUB in 2006.

The competition was hosted by Chinese Taipei University Sports Federation (CTUSF) and Taipei City Government and organized by Chinese Taipei Basketball Association (CTBA) and the CTUSF basketball committee under the auspices of Asian University Sports Federation (AUSF).

AUSF press release:

2nd Asian University Men's Basketball Championship: Update 3
2008-09-18

For the upcoming 2nd Asian University Men`s Basketball Championship to held from 11th to 16th Oct. 2008, six teams from China, Hong Kong, Iran, Korea, Lebanon and the host Chinese Taipei finally confirmed the participation in it. Therefore, the two-group competition system will not be used. The competition system will comprise of two stages: Preliminary Round and Medal Games.

The Preliminary Round will be a single round-robin competition, as each team will play all the other five teams. Then, the teams ranked 1st and 2nd in the preliminary round will play for the Gold Medal game, while those ranked 3rd and 4th will play for the Bronze Medal game.

In order to create the compeition schedule, a seeding format will be adopted. First, the first four slots were placed according to the finishing order among the teams previously participating in the 2006 Asian University Men’s Basketball Championship. Then ,the remaining two slots were filled in by the order of entry confirmation for those teams which didn’t participate in the 2006 Asian University Men’s Basketball Championship.

All the competitors for this Championship must be born between January 1, 1984 and December 31, 1990.

2008 Asian University Men’s Basketball Championship Competition Schedule

Date Day Time Home Team vs. Visiting Team
October 11th Sat 1300 TPE (2) vs. (5) LIB
October 11th Sat 1500 Opening Ceremony
October 11th Sat 1600 KOR (1) vs. (6) IRI
October 11th Sat 1800 CHN (3) vs. (4) HKG
October 12th Sun 1500 TPE (2) vs. (3) CHN
October 12th Sun 1700 IRI (6) vs. (4) HKG
October 12th Sun 1900 LIB (5) vs. (1) KOR
October 13th Mon 1500 KOR (1) vs. (4) HKG
October 13th Mon 1700 LIB (5) vs. (3) CHN
October 13th Mon 1900 TPE (2) vs. (6) IRI
October 14th Tue 1500 IRI (6) vs. (5) LIB
October 14th Tue 1700 HKG (4) vs. (2) TPE
October 14th Tue 1900 CHN (3) vs. (1) KOR
October 15th Wed 1500 HKG (4) vs. (5) LIB
October 15th Wed 1700 CHN (3) vs. (6) IRI
October 15th Wed 1900 KOR (1) vs. (2) TPE
October 16th Thu 1500 Bronze Medal Game Team#3 vs. Team#4
October 16th Thu 1700 Gold Medal Game Team #1 vs. Team# 2
October 16th Thu 2000 Closing Ceremony & Farewell Party(Kilin Hotel of Taipei)

-- Competition System: The system comprises of two stages: Preliminary Round and Medal Games.
-- The Preliminary Round: The format will be a single round-robin competition, as each team will play all the other participating teams in the Preliminary Round.
-- Medal Games: The teams ranked 1st and 2nd in the preliminary round will play for the Gold Medal game, while those ranked 3rd and 4th places will play for the Bronze Medal game.
-- Seeding Format: The first four seeds were selected according to the finishing order among the teams participating in the 2006 Asian University Men’s Basketball Championship. The remaining seeds were filled in by the order of the teams confirming their entry.

Rosters

Taiwan University Select
Lee Wei-lun G 172 64 Fujen University
Chou Tzu-hua G 184 85 Fujen University
Chen Shun-hsiang F 190 90 Fujen University
Chang Po-sheng G 185 83Taiwan University of Arts
Lin Ching-pang G 190 80 Chinese Culture University
Lu Cheng-ju F 194 88 TPEC
Lin Yi-hui F 191 89 NTNU
Wang Chien-wei F 190 91 Fujen University
Wu Chien-lung F 193 93 Chinese Culture University
Cheng Chih-hao C 208 94 Fujen University
Wu Tai-hao C 202 100 NTNU
Nian Shu-hao C 197 90 Fujen University

Notre Dame Univ.
Miguel Martinez 189
Marwan Ziadeh 200
Georges Badawi 183
Georges Akiki 173
Patrick Bou Abboud 200
Jad Bachour 196
Roudy Farraj 190
Rachad El Nawar 195
Raymonf Dagher 197
Robert Bou Dagher 202
Jean Abd El Nour 198

Iran University Select
DAVOUDICHEGANI, Aren 179
SAHAKIAN, Oshin 194
AKBARIBISHEH, Mohammadreza 192
DORAGHI, Ali 202
AMINI, Amir 187
BORDBAR FANI, Mojtaba 200
BAHERAN, Ali 184
ZAREEI, Mohammad 190
AKHAVANBITAGHGIR, Mohammad Javad 190
JAMSHIDI JAFARABADI, Ali 190
FARAHANI, Navid 190
SHAMSALDINSAEID, Ali 190
MONAVARI, Siavash 190

Official AUB web site  http://aub.pixnet.net/blog/
http://www.cityu.edu.hk/cityu/index.html
http://www.hanyang.ac.kr/english/

SBL rejects broadcast offer

Local news outlets reported that the SBL Committee had rejected the broadcast right fee offer from ESPN Taiwan and Videoland, the league's broadcast partners in the past five years and hold the negotiation priority, and did not rule out opening the bid.

ESPN Taiwan and Videoland upped their offer from NT 39.2 million to 42 million, but the number was still far from SBL's asking price of NT 56 million.

ESPN and VL lowered the offer because of the expenditure in the next season is expected to rise. Without a venue to play in Taipei, the SBL was forced to play in other cities in the 2008-09 season.

Guanhu Cup interrupted by super typhoon

The remaining games of the 2008 Guanhu Cup have been cancelled because of a super typhoon which is hitting Taiwan, game organizers said Saturday. Semifinal games and the the championship game will not be played.

Yulon, Taiwan Beer, Singapore Slingers and Korea's Kyunghee University advanced to the semifinal Saturday after the quarterfinal round. But that was as far as the competition went as Taiwan braced for Typhoon Jangmi, the fourth and the most powerful typhoon hitting the country this summer.

The cancellation of the games was inevitable as Typhoon Jangmi made its landfall in Taiwan's eastern coast Sunday afternoon. Hualien, where Guanhu Cup is being played, is in eastern Taiwan.

Sept. 27 Quarterfinal results:

Yulon 82-74 Dacin
Taiwan Beer 99-95 dmedia
Slingers 97-84 Phoenix
Kyunghee Univ. 95-90 Pure Youth

Guanhu Cup: Two teams eliminated, quarterfinals begin

Taiwan Mobile and Taiwan University Select have been eliminated from the 10-team 2008 Guanhu Cup after three days of preliminary games. Quarterfinals begin today.

Sept. 26
Kyunghee 86-77 Phoenix
dmedia 84-74 Taiwan Mobile
Yulon 98-85 Slingers
TB 86-77 Dacin

Quarterfinal matchups:
Slingers vs. Phoenix
Yulon vs. Dacin
Kyunghee vs. PY
TB vs. dmedia

Guanhu Cup photos (source: Apple Daily)

Sun Ming Ming of Phoenix stood above all the rest.

Lin Chih-chieh, Taiwan Beer.

Kao Tien-chi, dmedia.

Chen Hsin-an, who became a father this summer, returned to the court.

Sun Ming Ming of Phoenix.

Guanhu Cup results

Group A: Yulon, dmedia, Taiwan Mobile, Slingers
Group B: Taiwan Beer, Pure Youth, Dacin
Group C: Taiwan University Select, Kyunghee Univ., Phoenix

Sept. 24
Kyunghee 62-48 TUS
PY 94-76 Dacin
Slingers 92-84 TM
Yulon 110-82 dmedia

Sept. 25
Phoenix 110-67 TUS
Slingers 101-89 dmedia
Yulon 81-60 TM
TB 86-81 PY

2008 Guanhu Cup Invitational tips off today

2008 Guanhu Cup Invitational, which is alos known as Hualien Probation Cup, tips off today as ten teams from Taiwan and overseas are scheduled to participate in the five-day event that is entering its sixth year.

Venue: Huanlien County Gymnasium

Participating Teams:
Taiwan University Selects
Dacin Tigers, Taiwan (SBL) http://www.dacintigers.com.tw/
Yulon Dinos, Taiwan (SBL) http://www.yulon.com.tw/
Taiwan Beer, Taiwan (SBL) http://sbl.mytaiwanbeer.com.tw/
Pure Youth, Taiwan (SBL)
dmedia Numen, Taiwan (SBL) http://www.dmedia-numen.com.tw/
Taiwan Mobile Leopards, Taiwan (SBL) http://www.taiwandabasketball.com|
Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix, Japan (BJ League) http://bj-phoenix.com/
Kyung Hee University, Korea http://www.kyunghee.edu/
Singapore Slingers http://singaporeslingers.com/

2008 Guanhu Cup Invitational schedule

Sept. 24 (Wed.)
1400 TUS vs. Kyunghee (@Yuli Junior High School)
1540 Taiwan Mobile vs. Slingers
1720 Yulon vs. dmedia
1900 Dacin vs. Pure Youth

Sept. 25 (Thu.)
1400 Phoenix vs. TUS
1540 Slingers vs. dmedia
1720 Taiwan Mobile vs. Yulon
1900 Pure Youth vs. Taiwan Beer

Sept. 26 (Fri.)
1400 Kyunghee vs. Phoenix
1540 dmedia vs. Taiwan Mobile
1720 Yulon vs. Slingers
1900 Opening Ceremony
1930 Dacin vs. Taiwan Beer

Sept. 27 (Sat.)
1000 Quarterfinal 1
1140 Quarterfinal 2
1320 Quarterfinal 3 (Live broadcast, Videoland)
1500 Quarterfinal 4 (Live broadcast, Videoland)

Sept. 28 (Sun.)
1000 Semifinal 1
1140 Semifinal 2
1420 Bronze medal game (Live broadcast, Videoland)
1600 Championship game (Live broadcast, Videoland)
1740 Closing Ceremony

Taiwan Mobile adds seven players

Head coach Cheng Chih-lung and the newcomers. (source: Taiwan Mobile)

Taiwan Mobile, which finished for sixth place last season in the SBL, signed seven players, including German-Taiwanese center Jufan Geiger, for the upcoming season.

The Clouded Leopards yesterday introduced the newcomers with Geiger drawing the most attention. Geiger (205cm, 105kg), 27, came from Germany. His mother is a Taiwanese but he has to play as an import before receiving a Taiwanese passport -- if he wants to have one.

Geiger played for BBL's SV Tuebingen in 2003-04, Walter Tigers Tuebingen from 2004-2006, Kirchheim Knights of the ProA League in 2006-2007 before playing for TV Konstanz, averaging 11.8 points with the team.

Taiwan Mobile said it offered a position in the IT section for Geiger, a bioinformation major in Germany, to extend his non-basketball professional career.

I'm happy to know that Jufan finally find his way in Taiwan. I first got in touch with him about an year ago through a German reporter and exchanged a couple emails.

Ouyang Ching-heng, who enjoyed a breakout season last year -- 19.4 points and 4 rebounds per game -- with the dmedia Numen, signed with Taiwan Mobile.

Joining Ouyang will be 37-year-old sharp shooter Lo Hsing-liang, who averaged 6.2 points (39.5% 3PT) per game last season and helped Taiwan Beer to its second straight SBL title. TM wil count on Lo's experience and crunch shooting a lot.

194cm forward Chung Hsiu-nai, the second overall pick in the SBL Draft, will try to learn in a higher level of basketball and live up to his father's name. Chung's father, Chung Chih-mung, was an accomplished basketball coach who has coached Tera Mars in the CBA and Videoland Hunters in the SBL.

197cm Yen Chen-hung, 187cm forward Chu Chen-wei and Fang Yung-hsi, who played last season with Yulon, also signed with Taiwan Mobile.

Taiwan ninth place in Asian Junior Men

Sorry for late. I have been busy lately. Anyway, Taiwan Junior Men finished for the all-time worst ninth place in the Asian U-18 Championship which took place in Tehran, Iran.

While it's true that the results, which was the first time in history that Taiwan was out of the final eight, had a lot to do with the epic battle and a loss to the Philippines in two overtimes in the preliminary round, it was also undeniable that Taiwan's high school basketball has been down a bit these years.

After falling out of the quarterfinal round, Taiwan beat Saudi Arabia, 119-92, and India, 102-89, in the classification games before a 102-89 win over Jordan to finish for the ninth place.

Lee Ming-hui, the leading scorer on the team, had 26 points in the Jordan game while Chang Po-wei scored 19 and Lin Li-jen had 16 points.

Final ranking of the 2008 Asian U-18 Men's Championship:

1. Iran
2. Kazakhstan
3. Syria
4. Japan
5. China
6. Korea
7. Philippines
8. Lebanon
9. Taiwan
10. Jordan
11. Saudi Arabia
12. Hong Kong
13. India
14. UAE
15. Malaysia

Related links:
Wikipedia – FIBA Asia Under-18 Championship
FIBA Asia - Roster and game stats download (PDF)