Taiwan’s cagers are to get the 2016-2017 Super Basketball League (SBL) started today with two games, including the traditional match-up between the previous season’s finalists, defending champions Taiwan Beer and Pauian Archiland at the Sinjhuang Gymnasium in New Taipei City at 7:30pm.
There is also a game at 5pm, with the Fubon Braves taking on the Dacin Tigers before league officials and clubs conduct a season-launch ceremony at 7pm.
It is the 14th season of Taiwan’s semi-professional basketball league, which this year has seven teams vying for the title. The first round of post-season play is scheduled for March 4 and a best-of-seven championship series starts on March 25.
The other three teams are Bank of Taiwan, Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor and the Yulon Luxgen Dinos.
Officials unveiled the slogan “Hero for Team” for the season, which also sees games played in Taoyuan, Changhua County and Kaohsiung.
Veteran coach Yen Chia-hua again skippers Taiwan Beer. They face tough challenges from the other teams, who have bolstered their rosters through trades and new signings.
Center Patrick O’Bryant, a US import who has played in the NBA, is to return to head up Taiwan Beer’s offense. He is to be supported by fellow star players Chiang Yu-an, Wu Min-hsieng and Chu Yi-tsung.
Pauian Archiland should be strong this year with the return of US-born Quincy Davis, a naturalized Taiwanese.
Davis sustained an injury and spent most of last season as an assistant coach, although he suited up to represent Taiwan at the Jones Cup and international tournaments in the past year.
Playing alongside Davis are other current and former national representatives, including Taiwanese-American Douglas Creighton, Wu Tai-hao and Huang Chia-ming.
Another team to watch are the Dacin Tigers, who signed the towering Gursimran Bhullar, who at 2.26m is to anchor their defense, filling their one import quota.
Known as “India’s Yao Ming,” Bhullar was born in Toronto, Canada, to parents from India, and played college basketball in New Mexico. He had a brief stint with the NBA’s Sacramento Kings last year.
In tomorrow’s games, Bank of Taiwan face the Dinos at 3pm at the Sinjhuang venue, the Dacin Tigers play Kinmen at 5pm and Pauian Archiland play the Fubon Braves at 7pm.
Champagne corks often pop and loud, boisterous cheers are usually heard around Constitution Dock when the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race line honors winner finishes in the Tasmanian state capital. There were no such celebrations this year when the defending champions on board LawConnect won the race in the early hours of yesterday morning, as it came about 24 hours after two sailors died on separate boats in sail boom accidents two hours apart on a storm-ravaged first night of the race. LawConnect, a 100-foot super maxi skippered by Australian tech millionaire Christian Beck, sailed up the River Derwent at just after 2:30am.
‘BOWLINE’ AND ‘ARCTOS’: Roy Quaden was hit on the head by a boom, while Nick Smith was struck by the main sheet and thrown across the boat amid rough seas Two sailors have been killed in separate incidents in the treacherous Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, officials said yesterday, as a string of yachts retired in powerful winds and high seas. One of the crew members, 55-year-old Roy Quaden on Flying Fish Arctos, was hit on the head by a boom as the fleet raced down the New South Wales coast, race organizers said. The other man, 65-year-old Nick Smith, was struck by the main sheet aboard Bowline and thrown across the boat, said David Jacobs, vice commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. “Unfortunately, he hit his head on the winch, and
Liverpool on Thursday powered seven points clear at the top of the Premier League as the title favorites survived a scare in their 3-1 win against Leicester City, while Bruno Fernandes was sent off in Manchester United’s dismal 2-0 defeat against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Erling Haaland missed a penalty as crisis-torn Manchester City failed to end their dismal run with a 1-1 draw against Everton, but it was United’s travails and Liverpool’s remarkable run that took center-stage. Arne Slot’s side were shocked by Jordan Ayew’s early strike at Anfield, but the leaders recovered their composure to equalize just before the interval through Cody
Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan yesterday dumped defending champions Germany out of the United Cup with world No. 2 Alexander Zverev sidelined by an arm injury barely a week away from the Australian Open. The upset in Perth sent the Kazakhs into the semi-finals of the 18-nation tournament. In Sydney, women’s world No. 2 Iga Swiatek led Poland into the last eight by winning a rematch of her 2023 French Open final against Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic. Britain also progressed to the quarter-finals with Katie Boulter’s dominant 6-2, 6-1 victory over Australia’s Olivia Gadecki enough to guarantee they won their group. The US and
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