Seattle Pacific's coach Ryan Looney mentioned Banchero on Twitter the other day:

"Chris Banchero is almost ready to play again. Looked great in his workout today."

Exciting news for everyone out there waiting for updates. I have noticed a bunch of visits to his page the past two weeks . . . all seem to be coming from the Philippines. Looks like people are getting anxious for Chris to start the

I know it has been months since I put any new content in this section. After Banchero went down with the season-ending knee injury his teammates stepped up and had a decent post-season run lost in the Regional Semi-Finals of the DII Tournament (Round of 32). Seeing as they did not have their star and leader I think this was a better end to the year than could have been expected.

I know many of you have been wondering about Banchero over the past few months, and particularly how his rehab is going, and when he will be playing again. He signed with Veritas Venture Group, a Christian-centered sports management agency. I was able to exchange emails with his agent Paul Kevin who provided me with a brief update on Chris.

"Chris is doing very well and is ahead of schedule in terms of his rehab. By August he should be able to resume all normal basketball activities. Chris is one of the hardest working/motivated players I know and so it is expected that he will be back better than ever towards the end of the summer."

I know all of you are as excited to hear about where Chris chooses to play next season. I will update again when I hear something new.

Sorry I am a little late on reporting this. Doctors confirmed a ligament tear in Banchero's knee, thus ending both his season and his collegiate career. It is a tough blow for a player who was on pace to be an All-Conference player and challenge for a spot on the All-American Team. It is an even bigger blow for the Seattle Pacific squad, who now have to figure out how to win without their floor general and his 25 points and 6 assists per game.

At a later date I will write a post about Banchero's possible career trajectories, but for now I will leave you with the link to the official press release about his injury.

http://www.spufalcons.com/news/2011/1/11/MBBALL_0111111731.aspx?path=mbball

Unfortunately Bachero was unable to suit up against the University of Alaska-Anchorage. The Seattle Pacific website states:

"The Falcons were without the services of Banchero, their leading scorer who injured his knee early in Thursday’s 84-61 win at Alaska Fairbanks. His availability will be determined after undergoing a medical examination early next week."

I will be checking in regularly to see if I can find anything out. Fingers crossed for good news.

Banchero left the game at the 12:52 mark in the first half after going down with a knee injury. He did not return to the game, but the Falcons were able to pull away with the win. Banchero had score 6 points in the early going, and looked to be heating up.

I can not find any news on the seriousness of the knee injury, but we should find out something tomorrow when the Falcons play in Anchorage.

Tough game for Banchero as he dealt with a defense focused entirely on stopping him and with foul trouble. Banchero picked up two early fouls so was only able to play in six minutes of the first half. The question has been asked all season, how good is SPU without Banchero, as his phenomenal play early on has lead the team. The first half answered that question, as his teammates rallied with him watching on the bench. Sub Ryan Anderson exploded for 17 first half points, picking up for the offense that Banchero would have provided.

In the second half Banchero still did not get his scoring going until the very end, but he was still able to help his team as he directed the offense, ending the game with 5 assists, right around his team-leading average. With two minutes left and his team up by only one point, Banchero scored two crucial baskets, one on a gorgeous runner off the right wing, the other off a pull-up from the elbow. Those two baskets secured a 74-71 victory for the team.

This was a great win for the team, as they proved that on an off night for Banchero they are still competitive. As well, after losing a close game against Western Oregon two days earlier, it was good to see the Falcons remain composed and poised to close out a game.

The next games are the annual road trip up to Alaska on 1/6 against

Early wake up time over here in Asia for the 2:00 pm tip time on the West Coast. Great game to watch. Before I start going in to the details of Banchero's performance, I think it is important to note that DII basketball in the US is usually a guard-oriented game. Many of the players have high skill levels, but for one reason or another they were not recruited by the bigger schools. Both teams showed great basketball abilities today, with Western Oregon getting the upset in the end with an 88-85 victory over the Seattle Pacific Falcons.

Banchero had an up and down performance. He had his lowest scoring half of the season in the first half with only two points on 1-7 shooting, but then exploded for 24 points after the break. His coach has some interesting comments on Banchero's performance.

Despite his poor shooting, Banchero had some gorgeous assists early as he penetrated into the key and then dropped off to his bigs. On a few occasions Banchero forced his offense and took ill-advised long distance shots. In the second half he did not shoot off the dribble, instead waiting patiently for the ball to find him open on the perimeter. When he has his feet set and is in rhythm it seems like he does not miss.

Anytime you score 26 and have 10 assists you should feel proud of your performance. Unfortunately he is probably still kicking himself after making a dumb play at the very end of the game. Down by three with just seconds remaining he broke free from the press and took it all the way to the hoop instead of pulling up for the 3-pointer to tie the game. SPU thus was still down by 1 with only 1.6 seconds remaining. It is a small thing to fault a player on, but it is the kind of mistake a senior should not be making.

Next up is Saint Martin's from down the road in Olympia. The game will be streamed online, so follow me on twitter (asiabballupdate) to get a time and place reminder.

And there is the face that makes Filipino basketball fans . . . that includes everyone in the country I think . . . to go crazy with excitement. As I tried to work out the criteria for who to include in the updates section I skimmed through pages and pages of posts on the interbasket.com forums and followed up with hours of google searches. In the end I decided I wanted to find players in Asia who meant something to the future of the game in their home country (Jeremy Tyler is the best example of this) and find Asian players currently playing outside of Asia who would have the biggest impact when they came back to Asia. Banchero's name is all over the internet as a Filipino-American who can really play ball. As I mentioned in another post, covering Filipino basketball scares me. People care about the sport so much in the Philippines that I can only imagine what the response would be if I get something wrong. Be nice Philippines!

Banchero plays point guard for the Seattle Pacific University Falcons. He is the leading scorer,and the undisputed star of the team. In his first eight games this season he has averaged 25.5 ppg, 5.6 apg, 3.6 rpg,and 1.5 spg. He scorers from all areas of the floor and shoots a relatively high percentage for a shoot-first guard. It must be noted that SPU is a Division II school, but still the competition he plays is better than almost any league in Asia.In 2010 he was added to the prospective player list for Smart Gilas, signifying he is firmly on the radar of those in charge of basketball in the Philippines.

On December 30th Chris and the Falcons will begin the Conference portion of their schedule. My goal with his updates is to provide brief summaries of how he is playing and direct links to more information and hopefully video and radio feeds. Check back here often or watch my twitter account (asiabballupdate) for updates.

Happy Holidays!