Taiwan Beer reclaimed the SBL title last Friday by defeating the Dacin Tigers 4-1. It proved to be an exciting series, with all five games decided by 5 points or less. In the end, Taiwan Beer proved to be the more poised team down the stretch, always seeming to come up with the big bucket or the defensive stop when they needed it. Yang Ching-min was named the MVP for the series. Yang dominated the Dacin wings at times, and the Tigers never figured out a way to stop him. Combined with consistent 20-10 performances from Emmanuel Jones and solid post play from Wu Tai-hao, including a 29 point outburst in Game 3, the Tigers nevern seemed to be able to hold off TB. It is not often that the #1 team after the first week is able to hold on to that claim for the entire season, but TB was able to do it. While they were favorites at the start of the season, the way in which they consistently performed at a high level throughout the season is definitely admirable

The win for Taiwan Beer is somewhat bittersweet, as there is little chance they will retain the same team for next year. Both Yang and Wu have announced the strong likelihood that they will be playing in the CBA next season. While it is sad to see the continued exodus of top players from Taiwan, it is hard to blame the players as the money, exposure, and stability are all so much greater on the Mainland. Taiwan needs to do something drastic if they want to stop the exodus of their best players.

One last thing to note is that the post-season awards were announced this past week also. Rashard Jones-Jennings came away with the MVP, while his coach at Pure Youth Hsu Chin-tse was was named coach of the year. Shawn Hawkins led the league in scoring, Marcus Dove led the league in blocks and steals, Jennings led the league in rebounding with 21+ a game, and Chen Chih-Chung held on to his assists title. It will be interesting to see if any of the imports are brought back next year. If the SBL can't hold on to their best Taiwanese players, hopefully they are smart enough to bring back the most popular imports.

For Taiwan Beer their semi-final matchup against Yulon was over before most people realized it was going on. Emmanuel Jones and Yang Ching-Min played strong, leading the way to a 4-0 series sweep of Yulon. Really, no big surprise there . . .

The other semi-final was quite the shocker though as Dacin pounced on Pure Youth in Game 1 and never gave up the momentum. Pure Youth was able to get the win in Game 4, but last night Dacin proved to much for them to handle. Early in the year Dacin struggled to find their form. Looking back it seems while Keith Gayden put up great numbers, he was not the exact player they needed. Alexus Foyle is a great compliment to Tien Lei, providing points and rebounds, while never really demanding the ball. The duo of Foyle and Tien were too much for Rashard Jones-Jennings and his Pure Youth to handle.

The finals look to be a really interesting matchup. In many ways Emmanuel Jones and Alexus Foyle will cancel each other out. Thay are both great athletes who provide a lot of hustle and length to their teams. With those two battling each other the series will come down to the Taiwanese players, exactly how it should be. In the frontcourt Tien Lei is by far the best Taiwanese player on the two teams (and arguably in the league). Taiwan Beer's Wu Tai-hao will have his hands full trying to guard him. Expect Tien to attack from the outside to expose Wu's lack of speed. On the other hand Taiwan Beer's Yang Ching-Min is one of the best wing players in the league and Dacin does not have a perimeter defender at his level. In terms of supporting cast, Taiwan Beer has had the best in the league all year, and has the clear advantage against Dacin. Dacin will need Chang Chih-feng and others to hit their outside shots and play mistake-free basketball.

While Taiwan Beer is the prohibitive favorite, Dacin has been playing well over the past month and will not be a push-over. It should be a great series!

Taiwan - Wednesday and Friday night double-headers this week taught us quite a bit about how the rest of the season is shaping up. The most interesting game was the Yulon vs. Bank of Taiwan match-up on Wednesday. This marked our first chance to see Yulon in action without Tseng Wen-ting manning the middle. The results were not pretty, as BoT easily handled Yulon.

Despite losing to Taiwan Beer Wednesday night, KKL was competitive the whole game. Shawn Hawkins seems to be finding his footing (and his jumpshot) and they are falling into a nice rhythm. The positive results continued on Friday night as KKL beat Taiwan Mobile to move out of the cellar.

In the other game on Friday Pure Youth pulled out a close game against Dacin in a battle between 2nd and 3rd place teams. Jones-Jennings had another massive game with 22 points and 25 rebounds. This guy really deserves a bigger contract in the future.

Japan - In JBL news, Aishin came away with the Emperor's Cup title. Regularly season action now finally resumes this week. In less positive news, the JBL has taken over the Hokkaido-based Rera Kamuy franchise after the team's ownership failed to pay multiple league fees and broke numerous league policies. They have fired coach Joe Bryant as part of the restructuring as well (aka cost cutting measures). In my opinion, this opens the door for the bj-league to enter into the Hokkaido market. As Niigata has shown, a team that struggled financially in the JBL can operate successfully in the bj-league.

The bj-league All-Star Game is this weekend. Hopefully I can put up highlights from the game soon.

Korea - As I predicted a few weeks back the the Samsung Thunder are making a push to join the group of teams at the top of the league standings. After a tough overtime loss to KCC Egis, Samsung has pulled off three wins a row, including a 15 point victory over 1st place Sonic Boom KT. With Aaron Haynes' continued all-around superb play, Samsung looks to make the league a four team race.

Philippines - Game one of the PBA Philippines Cup is tonight as the Beermen take on the Texters for the title. The teams split their two meetings earlier this year. The teams both field a balanced attack with multiple players capable of exploding for big games. Should be a fun series to watch!

ASEAN - Semi-Finals action this weekend. I am excited to watch the Patriots (and one of my favorites Gabe Freeman) take on the Dragons. The Dragons have an interior-focused offense now while the Patriots play a fast-paced style. It should be an interesting contrast.

CHINA - Is it weird that I was more excited to watch Lester Hudson play in China than I am to watch Rafer Alston? Hudson is averaging 23.3 ppg in his first three games, and Guangdong has won two of those games. Looks like Chinese teams are starting to figure out which kind of import is successful in their league.

Tseng Wen Ting: The best player in the league (in my opinion at least) and one of the few recognizable faces in Taiwanese basketball has presumably played his last game in the SBL for the foreseeable future. Tseng has anchored the middle for perennial powerhouse Yulon for the past seven years, and is the reason why Yulon has been able to play without an import all those years. He leaves a team in the midst of a four game slide.

As I have mentioned many times, the SBL lacks any real identity and loyal fan base here in Taiwan. Tseng is one of the few players who people know. His trademark long hair, tough interior defense, and deadly mid-range jumpshot make him stand out (not to mention there are not too many 204 cm Taiwanese wandering around). When I was chatting with a formal American player in the SBL and mentioned Tseng the former player said, "Oh 'Long Hair', that guy can play, can't he?" It was the only time this former player mentioned a specific Taiwanese player in the SBL. Tseng is player #4 to jump to the CBA, but his presence will be missed the most.

The crazy thing is that there is a chance he will not be able to suit up for the Shanghai Sharks this season as we are already passed the deadline for CBA teams to add domestic players. I hope they make an exception, as it would be a shame for Tseng to lose a season when he is only 26.

Rashad Jones-Jennings: On the first day of the season this guy looked slow, 'offensively-challenged', and like he was two knees past his prime. Fast-forward 10 games and he is putting up historic numbers while leading Pure Youth to a surprising 2nd place in the standings. He is by no stretch the fastest or 'springiest' athlete on the floor but he seems to be in the right place at the right time every trip down the court. He also seems to truly love to play the game, and his enthusiasm carries over to his teammates.

Jason Faulknor: Just as it seemed Faulknor was figuring out how to be successful in the SBL his season was cut short by a serious injury to his back against Dacin. Taiwan Hoops reports that he will be out for six months. This is really too bad, I will miss watching his 1 man swarming defense. Bank of Taiwan has already brought in a replacement, former University of Minnesota-Duluth star John Vaudreuil. Vaudreuil has most recently been playing in another SBL, the State Basketball League in Western Australia, for the Goldfields Giants. He averaged a little over 19 ppg and 9 rpg there last season. In his debut with BoT on Sunday he scored 20 points.

Standings: Through Sunday January 16th.
1) Taiwan Beer 9-1
2) Pure Youth 8-2
3) Dacin Tigers 5-4
4) Yulon 5-5
5) Bank of Taiwan 2-7
6) Taiwan Mobile 2-7
7) KKL 2-7

Ranking the Imports: I will start doing this every other week I think. I will rank every import who plays in the SBL this season. There is no science behind the ranking, just observation as I watch 80% of the games.

1) Rashad Jones-Jennings - For all the reasons stated above.
2) Emmanuel Jones - He has stepped up in the games he has been needed and played 20 minutes or less in blowouts. Hard to say how good he really can be because there have been a lot of blowouts.
3) Marcus Dove - On the first day of the season I would have predicted Dove to be #1 on this list, and there is a chance in the end he will. Dove leads his team in every major statistical category. He just happens to be surrounded by mediocre players.
4) Keith Gayden - Consistency is not his thing, neither is free throw shooting. But when Gayden has been on, he has shown the ability to dominate. Unfortunately Dacin as a team shows as much inconsistency as Gayden.
5) Shawn Hawkins - He is slowly finding his groove again. KKL has gone 2-3 since he has rejoined them, and has been competitive in two of the loses. Hawkins still has not found his shooting stroke, once that happens he and KKL can shoot up the charts.
6) Jason Faulknor - He played hard every game. He has no offensive skill set to speak of, but he kept BoT in some games with his hustle alone. Here's hoping he gets his back sorted out and signs in the bj-league next year. Players like Faulknor seem to thrive in the role of 3rd or 4th import on a team in that league.
7) John Vaudreuil - He looked fine in his first game. We'll see if his skill set complements his teammates more than Faulknor.
8) Sheldon Bailey - There was a reason KKL didn't seem to care when he took off after one game . . .

Six games in total over the past two days, triple-headers are a nice benefit of the SBL's cost-cutting managerial style. So first a recap of the individual games, and then some random thoughts and analysis. This gets a little long . . . be warned.

Pure Youth 84 - Dacin 73
This was an interesting match-up of imports as both Jones-Jennings and Gayden are physically imposing compared to the Taiwanese players. With a 200 cm height restriction teams either go for the long athlete, or the brick wall. While Gayden is a great athelete, both of these players have some brick-wallishness about them.

This was a lot closer of a game then the final outcome suggests. Frankly, the teams were evenly matched in almost every statistical category. In the end it came down to Pure Youth hitting a couple more shots and then sinking their free throws at the end of the game. The imports had a nice little battle, showing a difference in their style of play. Jones-Jennings finished with 16 and 15 largely by moving people inside, while Gayden showed some versatility by stepping out for jump shots, he found the most success on inside moves and put backs, ending the night with 22 and 14. The best Taiwanese performance came by way of PY's Chien Chia-Hung who finished with 26.

Taiwan Beer 93 - KKL 72
Not too much to comment on this game, Taiwan Beer is just a lot better team. KKL is still without an import player since the departure of Bailey. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this game is that all twelve players on Taiwan Beer saw at least 8 minutes of action. Phenomenal substituting by the coaching staff!

KKL's Chang Jung-hsuan leads the league in scoring at this point, but is really going to benefit from the presence of Shawn Hawkins on the opposite wing.

Taiwan Mobile 78 - Bank of Taiwan 72
Mobile jumped out to a 25-10 lead at the end of the 1st and appeared to be on their way to an easy victory. Not so. Bank of Taiwan slowly chipped away at the margin over the next two periods, starting the 4th only down by 2. While Mobile did hold on, it was an unimpressive victory to say the least. Dove continues to confuse me. He looks good out there, and is by far the best athlete on the court at all times. It does not seem to be translating to a huge impact on the court though. One problem Mobile faces is their lack of depth. They only went 8 deep in this game and it showed. Faulknor had another average performance. He plays with a ton of energy and makes good things happen, but does not seem to have the ability to create his own shots. This would not be a problem if his teammates could create shots . . .

Dacin 86 - KKL 72
The only good news coming out of this game was that one team would finally get a 'W'. Dacin, riding on the physical interior play of Gayden and Tien Lei pulled ahead in the 2nd Quarter and never looked back. Gayden has looked better each game after an ugly performance in the opener against Tseng and his Yulon teammates.

Yulon 76 - Pure Youth 74 (OT)
By far the game of the night, and the game of the season far was this battle between two of the top teams in the league. I saw this as a match-up to determine who is the #2 team in the league at this point, as Taiwan Beer looks to be in a class of their own. Anyway, after taking a commanding lead early, Yulon let Pure Youth back into the game in the 4th. Pure Youth's charge was really a team effort, with big contributions from a number of players.

In the end there were some awful calls down the stretch that all went Yulon's way. As a result they were able to force overtime and come out with the victory. One thing I can't figure out is where was James Mao? I did not notice him get injured against Dacin the night before. Pure Youth needs his scoring, and this would have been a completely different game with him in the lineup.

Taiwan Beer 73 - Taiwan Mobile 59
Once again, at the end of this game I was not sure I knew how good Taiwan Beer is as a team. By this I mean, until they are challenged regularly I do not think we will have an accurate read on their team personality. Dove had an ugly game for Mobile, scoring 7 points on 3/12 shooting. He at least grabbed 12 rebounds.


Thoughts

• We know that Taiwan Beer, Yulon, and Pure Youth are good. We know that Taiwan Mobile, Bank of Taiwan, and KKL in their current state are weak. Dacin is the only team I do not think we have a real read on yet. They play Bank of Taiwan on Wednesday.
• I am tempted to rate the imports today, but am going to wait until next week and I have seen them all play one more time.
• Last night I had SBL running on one computer and the CBA running on the other, and could not help but think about the awkward relationship the two leagues have. If I were a CBA team I would be recruiting Taiwanese players aggressively. The fan support, sponsorship, and facilities of the SBL can in no way compete with the CBA. I understand a CBA team would have to think about the political message they were sending by bringing over a handful of Taiwanese players, but the basketball rewards would be worth it. There are at least a 10-15 players with the skill level to play in the CBA playing in the SBL right now, if not more. Taiwanese teams lack the size of Chinese teams, but at point and wing positions are as good, if not better. In my opinion of course . . .  It will be interesting to see what rumors about player movement start swirling at the end of this season.
  

Two games last night, both competitive, but the level of play could not have been more different. Worst teams played each other and best teams played each other.

Bank of Taiwan 84 - KKL 77
KKL and Bank of Taiwan played the first game, in a match-up of what very likely will be the bottom two teams in the league. KKL was without import player Sheldon Bailey, who has the left the team. There are conflicting reports as to why he left. This is not a surprising turn of events, as Bailey was initially listed as "under testing" when the rosters were announced this season, and played poorly in last weekend's games. KKL was able to keep the game close despite being a man down, but Bank of Taiwan was able to hold on to the lead with solid free throw shooting down the stretch.

Jason Faulknor, who struggled mightily in his first game against Taiwan Beer, contributed a solid 16 and 6 to Bank of Taiwan's win. Faulknor really ramped the defensive intensity in the 4th quarter and was all over the court down the stretch. With that kind of effort he certainly has a place on an under-sized Bank of Taiwan team.

Taiwan Beer 80 - Yulon 71
In a match-up of two of the league's traditional powerhouses, Taiwan Beer proved to the league that they are the team to beat this season. TB jumped out to a twenty point lead at one point in the 3rd period, but Yulon fought back to make the game close in the 4th. In the end though, the play of Emmanuel Jones and Cheng Jen-Wei proved to tough for Yulon to handle.

Jones had a particularly impressive performance on Wednesday night that showed he will be a great addition in this league. Any import who can put up 21 and 20 against Tseng Wen-Ting is going to be just fine.

December marks the month this year that all three levels of basketball, High School, University, and Pro, begin their seasons in earnest.

I had the opportunity to watch the two-time defending champion team from Song-Shan High School play in an exhibition game on Friday night. This was my first time seeing them play in person, as before I only watched them on the television. While the team I saw was made up of their reserves mostly, I still got a gI was impressed by two things most of all. Size. I knew Hu Long-Mao was a decent-sized young man, but there were three or four other players with good height on the team. Of course size is relative as none of them broke the 6’5” mark. I was also impressed with their man-to-man defense they are famous for playing. It is not often one sees a high school team play a legitimate pressure man-to-man out to 25 feet. It was fun to watch such a fundamentally sound team play at the high school level.

Chris Wang wrote an article this morning about the start of the University basketball league. It looks like National Taiwan Normal University is the favorite in the Men’s division. No surprise as it seems they are a feeder program to both the National Team and to the SBL.

The Super Basketball League will begin play on Christmas Day, and as such has officially announced the rosters for the upcoming season, including the import players currently under contract. It will be nice to have the basketball discussions turn from the rumors about some of the clubs’ interest in joining the CBA to what is actually happening on the court.

The import players announced this year are an interesting collection of players, but lack name recognition. Perhaps the most well-known player is Marcus Dove who started at Oklahoma State University a few years back. Since then he spent one year in Belgium and then played significant minutes for the NBDL’s Dakota Wizards last year. I have spent the day thinking about why the import players in the SBL are so obscure and have come up with the following thoughts.

1)      Is it all about the Bejamins? The four import players with salary information listed on Taiwan Hoops are paid somewhere in the range of $6,000-$10,000 per month. This equates to $24,000-$40,000 for the season. This figure is consistent with last season as well. The salaries are between ½ of the regular salary in the Japanese bj league and ¼ of the salary in Korea or China. So naturally, the less money available the lower profile the players. The SBL currently pays the same as the ASEAN Basketball League. But this cannot be the only answer, as the players can make more money here (with much greater saving potential) than they can in the US minor leagues, and many of the lower divisions in Europe.

2)       I think the timing of the league is a problem for recruiting the best talent from the US. The KBL, JBL, and bj-league all start their seasons in October, before the minor leagues in the US begin playing. As such, someone like Rod Benson will choose to take the better paycheck than spend another year in the minors with the hope of a call-up. Since the D-League is in full swing now the SBL is essentially looking for players who did not make the D-League roster, and who have not found a home in one of the lower division leagues in Europe or South America at this time.

3)      The height restriction. Because the SBL limits imports to 200 cm (around 6’6”) teams try to get as close to that number as possible. Like most other leagues in Asia, the SBL is guard heavy so naturally teams look to fill the post position. Finding players that match this description is tough (think Chuck Hayes). I find it interesting though that the teams limit their sights like this, as Shawn Hawkins proved last year that a classic swingman can find a lot of success in the SBL.

4)      In the end I think it all comes down to prestige. Playing in the 8-team “professional” league of an island with 21 million inhabitants is not seen as a forward step in a player’s career.  Taiwan, and Taiwanese basketball, is literally stuck in the middle of the four power players in the region: China, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines. Each one of those countries has a bigger market, and thus greater exposure for their leagues. Taiwan has a lot of work to do to bring up the quality of the league so that they can compete with their neighbors.

Despite these somewhat negative thoughts running around in my head, like many other people here in Taiwan I am happy that basketball season is back. I can't wait to take my kids to a game.

Thanks to Chris Wang at Taiwan Hoops for a quick and comprehensive update on the Taiwan Beer situation. I agree, the logistics of this move alone would be daunting, as anyone who has traveled between China and Taiwan knows.

One option that no one in Taiwan has talked about is connecting down with the ASEAN League in the future. While I understand Taiwan is not technically part of Southeast Asia, the move would expand the potential market for Taiwanese players and allow for Taiwan to strut its stuff on an international stage. Just a thought . . .

It seems that the only thing keeping these two basketball loving nations apart is politics. While that is one huge "thing" between these two countries, it seems that things are starting to heat up in this area.

First, Taiwan Hoops reported that Tseng Wen-Ting has been offered a chance to play for the Shanghai Sharks of the CBA this next season. I watched as many of Tseng's games as I could last year, as in my opinion, he is the most dynamic player in the SBL at this time. It would be a huge blow to the SBL to lose Tseng, last year's MVP and owner of multiple championships. But for Tseng the move would make all the sense in the world both from a financial standpoint and a basketball standpoint. At 26 years old it is time for him to step onto a bigger stage.

Second, is perhaps the bigger news with reports that Taiwan Beer are applying to join the CBA and subsequent reports shooting down the rumor. While there has been no update (in English at least) over the weekend on this, I think it is highly unlikely that this rumor came out of nowhere. Hopefully we can get some further clarific