CTBA names 2012 Taiwan national men’s teams

The top five star players, including Chen Hsin-an and Tien Lei, were included in the 30-man rosters of the 2012 Taiwan men’s national teams announced by the Chinese Taipei Basketball Association on May 23.

Hsu Chin-tse, who led Pure Youth to its first ever SBL title last month, would be the head coach of Taiwan’s national team while Chiu Da-tsun, coach of Dacin Tigers, would be the head coach of the national second team, which is also known as Kwang Hua team.

Wu Tai-hao signs with Zhejiang: report

Taiwan Beer center Wu Tai-hao has signed a two-year contract with Zhejiang Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), Apple Daily reported Wednesday.

Terms of the contract was not disclosed, but Zhejiang will reportedly pay Wu an annual salary between 1 to 1.5 million Chinese Yuan (US$155,000-232,000, NT$4.47-6.7 million), the report said.

Taiwan announces final roster for EABC

[No Tien Lei (middle) and Tseng Wen-ting (right) for Taiwan NT this year. Lee Hsueh-lin (left) returned from China to be back with the team.]

The Chinese Taipei Basketball Association on Friday announced the final roster for the upcoming East Asian Basketball Championship, the qualifying tournament for the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship.

The 12-man lineup is led by three core players who played last season in China, including former Taiwan Beer forward Lin Chih-chieh and a pair of ex-Yulon Luxgen stars — forward Chen Hsin-an and point guard Lee Hsueh-lin.

Taiwan NT having trouble with injury and…basketball

Chen Tse-wei became the latest casualty down with injury as the 200cm Dacin forward withdrew from the national team training camp for the 2011 EABC, according to head coach Chou Jun-san.

So far, Chen, Tien Lei and Chang Chih-feng — coincidentally, all three came from Dacin, have decided to sit out the EABC.

Lin Chih-chieh re-signs with Zhejiang: report

Lin Chih-chieh has re-signed with Zhejiang Lions for three years with an annual salary of 1.8 million Chinese Yuan (US$277,220), an 80 percent increase from his previous contract with the team, the Chinese language newspaper Liberty Times reported.

CTBA announces 24-man preliminary roster of Taiwan men’s NT

The Chinese Taipei Basketball Association approved the 24-man preliminary roster of Taiwan men’s NT for the East Asian Basketball Championship, a qualifier for the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship for Men, submitted by Taiwan NT head coach Chou Jun-san Friday.

Six oversea players, including the trio playing in China — Lin Chih-chieh, Chen Hsin-an and Lee Hsueh-lin, Tseng Wen-ting, who is playing for BJ League’s Osaka Evessa in Japan, and the pair playing in the U.S. — Jet Chang and Chou Yi-hsiang.

Chang finished a brilliant junior season with the NCAA Div-II BYU-Hawaii, leading the Seasiders to the championship game and scoring 78 points in two games in the Final Four. He became the first Taiwanese player to be named the Most Outstanding Player in Div-II Final Four. He averaged 21.2 points during the season.

20-year-old Chou, a 6-4 freshman in Salt Lake Community College, averaged 4.6 points in 15.1 minutes in his first year in the U.S.

Preliminary roster:

Yang Ching-min, 188cm, 1984/01/22, 27, TB
Wu Tai-hao, 202cm, 1985/02/07, 26, TB
Cheng Jen-wei, 194cm, 1987/04/06, 24, KKL
Chen Shih-nian, 180cm, 1984/04/08, 27, TB
Ho Shou-cheng, 196cm, 1983/02/15, 28, TB
Doug Creighton, 195cm, 1985/03/07, 26, TB
Tien Lei, 202cm, 1983/06/01, 27, Dacin
Chang Chih-feng, 183cm, 1981/04/22, 30, Dacin
Chen Tse-wei, 200cm, 1985/01/30, 26, Dacin
James Mao, 196cm, 1982/11/16, 28, PY
Chien Chia-hung, 197cm, 1987/03/06, 24, PY
Lu Cheng-ju, 194cm, 1986/08/23, 24, Yulon
Chen Shun-hsiang, 190cm, 1985/05/02, 26, BOT
Su Yi-chieh, 182cm, 1987/01/28, 24, TM
Chen Ching-huan, 190cm, 1987/12/18, 25, KKL
Chang Jung-hsuan, 194cm, 1986/02/03, 23, KKL
Lee Hsueh-lin, 175cm, 1984/01/31, 27, Beijing (China)
Tseng Wen-ting, 202cm, 1984/07/06, 26, Osaka (Japan)
Lin Chih-chieh, 192cm, 1982/06/11, 28, Zhejiang (China)
Chen Hsin-an, 195cm, 1980/07/01, 30, Dong Guan (China)
Jet Chang, 192cm, 1988/12/27, 22, BYU-Hawaii (US)
Chou Po-chen, 196cm, 1990/08/08, 20, Taiwan Normal University
Chou Yi-hsiang, 194cm, 1991/02/04, 20, Salt Lake CC (US)

Meanwhile, Chou has nominated PY head coach Hsu Chin-tse as one of his assistants. The other assistant coach remains to be named.

Taiwan Beer wins 2011 SBL title

Taiwan Beer beat Dacin Tigers 83-78 in overtime in Game 5 of the 2011 SBL Finals Friday night to win its third title in team history and its first title in three years.

Taiwan Beer, which won the best-of-seven series 4-1, won its first title after completing a back-to-back title run in 2007-2008 with its head coach Yen Chia-hua becoming the first SBL coach winning three titles.

Swingman Yang Ching-min, who scored seven of his game-high 23 points in the final quarter to take the game into the extra period and made four crucial free-throws to ice the victory, was named Finals MVP.

The five-game series was the most competitive Finals in the SBL’s eight year history as the final margins in all five games were less than five points with two of them going into overtime.

Results:
Game 1: TB 62-59 Dacin
Game 2: TB 80-75 Dacin
Game 3: TB 94-89 Dacin
Game 4: Dacin 76-73 TB
Game 5: TB 62-59 Dacin

Yang, Wu leaving?

However, all is not that well for the champion. Yang and TB’s starting center Wu Tai-hao are reportedly going to China next season. Yang said he is still weighing on his decision, but Wu told media that he will be definitely leaving.

If Yang and Wu both leave, it means that TB will lose three-fifth of its starting lineup in two years — after Lin Chih-chieh’s departure to China (Zhejiang) last year.

The next NT coach

Former CTBA President Mao Kao-wen, who has resigned from his post due to illness, has made clear that the new head coach of Taiwan national team will be head coach of the SBL champion.

In other words, Mao doesn’t want to hire a foreign coach, such as South Korean Chung Kwang-suk who led Taiwan to fifth place — its best finish in the tournament since 1999 — in the 2009 FIBA Asia men’s basketball championship, to coach the national team.

Which means… Yen will be automatically qualified as the new Taiwan NT head coach? Not exactly.

The CTBA has required in the past that only coaches who have been certified as grade-A coaches are qualified as candidates. However, Yen is not one of them.

Local basketball observers have had mixed reviews about Yen, who did not develop as a basketball coach the traditional way because he had no previous coaching experience before coaching a team in the amateur league and later Taiwan Beer in the SBL.

Yen functioned as more of a general manager than a head coach, in my opinion, since he relinquished much of the substitution and on-court coaching decision to his assistant Chou Jun-san.

I’m not sure how this issue can be solved. Let’s wait and see.

(Photos: SBL)

Taiwan announced 16-man roster for Asian Games men’s basketball

CTBA announced its 16-man men’s basketball roster for the Asian Games in Gaungzhou, China on Wednesday with injured core players Tseng Wen-ting, Tien Lei, Lin Chih-chieh and Wu Tai-hao all returning to the national team training camp.

Wu Feng-cheng replaced Jet Chang, who will go back to Hawaii to prepare for his junior season with BYU-Hawaii.

Taiwan men’s NT did not perform well during the past Asian Games, finishing for 5th place in 1990 Asian Games in Beijing, 6th place in 1994 in Hiroshima, 5th place in 1998 in Bangkok, 7th place in 2002 in Pusan, Korea and 8th place in 2006, Doha, Qatar.

Wu Feng-cheng 1986.11.27 195 80 Yulon
Yang Chin-min 1984.1.22 188 85 Taiwan Beer
Lee Hsueh-lin 1984.1.31 176 75 Yulon
Chen Shih-nian 1984.4.8 180 76 Taiwan Beer
Chen Shun-hsiang 1985.5.25 190 90 Bank of Taiwan
Hung Chih-shan 1985.7.5 176 75 Pure Youth
Chien Chia-hung 1987.3.6 197 108 Pure Youth
Cheng Jen-wei 1987.4.6 194 90 KKL
Lu Cheng-ju 1986.4.13 194 88 Yulon
Mao Chia-en 1982.11.16 196 90 Pure Youth
Tien Lei 1983.6.1 202 100 Dacin
Wu Tai-hao 1985.2.7 202 100 Taiwan Beer
Tseng Wen-ting 1984.7.6 203 90 Yulon
Chang Chih-feng 1981.4.22 183 90 Dacin
Lin Chih-chieh 1982.6.11 192 95 Taiwan Beer
Chou Po-chen 1990.8.8 196 94 University

Head coach: Zhang Xuelei
Assistants: Chiu Chi-yi, Wei Yung-tai