A nice story from the local Hawaii news.

It really was everything we could have hoped for in a championship game . . . unfortunately for the Seasiders they ended up three points short of the win.

Chang started off a little slow, but that only lasted for three minutes. He proceeded to continue where he had left off in the semi and dropped 21 points in the next 14 minutes on 9/10 shooting. Unfortunately the problem for Chang and his running mate Whippy was foul trouble. Chang picked up his 2nd (on a rather ticky-tac call) forcing him to sit for a few minutes at the end of the half. It was during this stretch that Bellarmine first took the momentum away from the Seasiders. Fouls continued to be the theme as Chang and Whippy both picked up numbers 3 and 4 in the second half. The Seasiders stayed in the game through tough defense, but failed to convert on offense when they needed it most.

I know that Chang will be thinking about the fouls and turnovers (and probably the no-call at the end of the game) for a while. It is a shame as the 35 points he put up once again showed his versatility and skills. For those of us that like watching him play we can at least be happy we have one more year of Jet playing for the Seasiders.

It was an amazing season that unfortunately ended 3 points short of the goal.

Wow!!!

On a night when many BYU fans were mourning the disappointing loss to Florida, all they would have had to do to feel better was switch over and watch Jet Chang and his Seasiders fight off the #1 team in the country, the West Liberty Hilltoppers. Chang was absolutely ridiculous in this game as he hit 14 of the 17 shots he took including 7/9 from downtown. I laughed when I saw West Liberty try to push the pace of the game. While this may rattle other opponents, they had obviously no clue that they were playing right into Chang's strength. The game reminded me exactly of a Taiwanese basketball game. Defense . . . optional. Shot selection . . . anything within 25 feet is alright.

After scoring 43 points tonight, look for the Bellarmine (Ky.) squad to focus on shutting Chang down in the Finals. Hopefully Chang will be able to exhibit his play making abilities along with his amazing knack for scoring. Saturday afternoon 1 pm Eastern Time (or 1 am Sunday morning in Taiwan).

    It has been a whirlwind two weeks for the Seasiders as they have ridden a hot streak to the D2 Final Four. BYU first had to progress through a tough regional group in Ellensburg, Washington. As the #7 seed it would have been easy to dismiss their chances, especially as their first regional game was against CSU-Dominguez Hills, a team that had defeated them by 27 points in their first game of the season. Luckily the Seasiders have grown as a team and rose to the occasion defeating CSU-DH 83-76. Riding on that momentum the Seasiders handily defeated University of Alaska-Anchorage in the Regional Semi-Finals. In the Regional Finals BYU-H faced their conference rival Dixie State for a chance to go on to the National Tournament for the first time. The Seasiders opened with a strong first half gaining a 13 point advantage, and then cruised to a 79-73 victory.

    In the three games Chang a solid 17.3 ppg, 4.3 rpg, and 1.6 apg. His best performance was against UAA when he exploded for 26 points and grabbed 7 boards. 

    Tonight marked the biggest game in BYU-Hawaii Men’s Basketball. On a national stage in Springfield, Mass the team showed up to play. Taking on fellow 7-seed Bloomfield, the Seasiders delivered a commanding performance winning 96-89. Chang led the way again with 22 points, but five other players also scored in double figures. Chang also contributed 5 rebounds and 5 assists. It seems that the Seasiders are putting everything together at the right time. Tomorrow they will go up against the #1 team in the country, 33-0 West Liberty.

Go Seasiders!

I have failed for a month now to update readers on Jet Chang's performance for the BYU-Hawaii Seasiders. In the month of February Chang went through a slight slump for a few games, but finished the month off on a hot streak. Unfortunately for Chang and the Seasiders they ran into a tough Chaminade team in the final regular season game, losing 84-82 with Chang only contributing 10 points.

Chang's regular season averages of 20.2 points and 3.4 rebounds per game should surely merit another All-Conference selection.

But the season is not over for Chang and the Seasiders. On the 11th they will face CSU-Dominguez Hills in the Regional Tournament. Earlier in the season Dominguez Hills blew out BYU-H, and Chang struggled to score only 13 points and dish out 3 assists. They will certainly need a big from Chang and his running mate Marques Whippy.

Below are just a couple of highlights from the most recent Dixie State game. Chang ended the gamewith a team-high 30 points, but was unable to lead the Seasiders to victory in the 2nd overtime.

I forgot to post this a few days ago. Exciting game with a big performance from Chang.

Definitely two very different games for Jet Chang and the BYU-Hawaii Seasiders. Against Notre Dame de Namur BYU-H could not get anything going on offense for the first three quarters of the game. Chang and the other Seasiders guards seemed content to passively hang out on the perimeter and jack up three pointers. Things changed at the ten minute mark as Chang took control of the offense. It is interesting to see how the team responds to his scoring, as his teammates also came alive at the same time. BYU-H held on for the 60-57 win. Highlights from the 2nd half are below.

Monday's game against Academy of Art was not nearly as dramatic as the Seasiders jumped out to a big lead early and cruised to a 79-62 win. Chang led all scorers with 26 points, scoring on a variety of shots from inside and outside.

On the season Chang is averaging 19 ppg and 2.5 rpg.

BYU-H hosted Olivet Nazarene in their last tune-up game before conference play starts. It was a tight game throughout with Nazarene pulling out the win in the last two minutes, 80-77. Jet Chang was the high point man for BYU-H again with 25 points on 10-19 shooting. As has been the case for much of the season, there was not much going on in the rest of the stat sheet as he collected one rebound and three assists. Chang's role with the Seasiders is that of primary scorer, but in order for them to have a successful conference season this year they are going to need him to step up in all other areas as well. The next game is on January 8th and is currently scheduled to be broadcast on byutv.org, which provides free online streaming. I will post a link to the game via twitter sho

I am three games behind in my Jet Chang updates. My apologies to the select few who read this blog!

The first two games came in the annual D2 Hawaii Tournament. I only had the opportunity to watch the first game unfortunately. Unfortunate because the first game against UH-Hilo was probably Chang's worst showing of the year. The Vulcan's defense was keyed on him and his shooting numbers suffered accordingly. He managed just 11 points on 4/16 shooting. While his personal performance was not up to his usual standard, the Seasiders came away with a 13 point victory. The next night Chang was back to lead the team with 19 points, unfortunately the Seasiders struggled to contain Chaminade's hot shooting and lost by 11points.

After a week long break (filled with exams) the Seasiders played their last game of 2010, securing a win at home against Western Oregon. Chang led the way in scoring again with 21 points, including four 3-pointers. For the season Chang is averaging 17.6 ppg, 2.6 rpg, and 1.4 apg. BYU-H needs him to continue scoring at this rate in the new year when the conference schedule begins.

The next game for the Seasiders is January 4th against Olivet Nazarene of Illinois. I do not think this game will be broadcast online. Luckily though, the next three games will be played on byutv.org. I will post exact times and links to those games when the dates draw nearer. Check back in for that info.

I was not planning on updating Jet Chang’s status until next week when I had a few more games to look at, but his performance against Long Beach State University was good enough to warrant its own post.

Before I get into his stats line, it is important to note that LBSU is the only DI program on BYU-H’s regular season schedule (they played BYU-Provo in the preseason). DII players circle these games on their calendars because this is where they can show their skills on a bigger stage. At the end of a DII player’s career scouts always look how players did against the DI opponents to judge how they would do against this level of competition. With that in mind Jet’s performance was even more awesome than the stat line reads.

32 points, 5 rebounds on 12/21 shooting. He scored 20 of these points in the second half as he led the Seasiders to within 4 points with less than two minutes remaining in the game. While they could not pull off the upset, Jet showed time and again that he is an elite scorer, no matter the division of the opponent. While he did hit a three, the majority of Jet’s points came from attacking the rim and exploiting slow defensive rotations.

Next up for Jet and the Seasiders is the Hawaii DII Tournament on Thursday and Friday. They will open up against the squad from UH-Hilo, and assuming they win, will then play the winner of the HPU v. Chaminade matchup.