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The Nippon U21 National Team secured an important first victory over Khazakhstan in this year's Asia Championships by a final score of 91-81 avenging a loss to this same team in the last Asia Championships. Our team jumped out to as much as a 17 point lead in the first half but were unable to completely put the game away. Khazakhstan's relentless inside attack led to some serious foul trouble as starting our C and PF both fouled out of the game. However, the superior depth on Nippon U21 prevailed in the end.

SF Mitsuo Shibukuji of Sapporo Fighters and PG Shinya Umari of Kotets both led the way with 20 points each. Umari also had an impressive defensive performance with 6 steals on the night. With 11 boards, Norio Funaki from Yokozuna led the rebounding effort.

Next up for the team is Malaysia U21. This will be another important game for us. Malaysia has already lost one game to Prathet Thai and still have to face dual Chinese Juggernauts Hong Kong U21 and China U21. Losing this game will have Malaysia facing a minimum of 4 losses and likely out of the next round.

For Nippon U21 winning this game almost ensures us of advancing to the next round. With Malaysia, Khazakhstan, and Vietnam each facing at least 4 losses, by winning against Malaysia we would expect to be secure to advance if we attain a minimum of 3 wins. Our last two games are against Prathet Thai U21 and group powder puff Vientam U21. We would only need one of those two, but would have a good chance to win both.

As mentioned before, I have started a Federation where I will share what I've gathered about our opponent and some thoughts on the upcoming game. I invite the any of the active local managers to come share their thoughts and insights on our strategy and learn more about the team.

You can join the group here: [link=http://www.buzzerbeater.com/community/fedoverview.aspx?fedid=18353 .]

From the election debates it seemed there was alot of interested in such a discussion and I want to make sure that anyone who wants to be involved has the opportunity. Also if anyone wants to participate in U21 Nippon in any other way please let me know. I truely believe that we can always accomplish more as a group than any one of us individually.

Disappointing 4 point loss to Malaysia tonight. The game was back and forth the whole way but we couldn't seem to get the upper hand. Missed too many free throws and it seemed like we went through a stretch in the 3rd where we missed 15-20 straight shots.

This makes the last two games much more important. We need to win both the last two games. We get a week off for a bye to regroup. Next up is a challenging game against Thailand who has already secured two wins.

The U21 squad secured a big 122-101 victory over Prathet Thai U21 last night. Our strong outside attack proved to be too much for Prathet Thais weak peremiter defense, as such our team went 47-87 (54%) from the field with 13-27 (48%) from 3-point range. We also out rebounded the Thai team by a 53 to 27 margin.

The effort was led by Shinya Umari (Kotets) 29 points, 27 of which came in the first half before fouling out midway through the 3rd quarter. The big second half surge was driven by a group effort from Norio funaki (Yokozuna.), Mitsu Shibukji (Sapporo Fighters) and Takahiko Okada (工研人 - Taiwan) each putting up 17 with Usami Matsumura (Kotets) also contributing 16 points. The rebounding effort was led by Masaki Omori (Zenigata Gangs) with 13 boards.

With this victory our U21 team will advance to the second round of play with a victory in the final first round game against Vietnam U21. Vietnam has been making a poor showing all season with their closest game being a 17 point loss to Khazakhstan. We won't be taking them lightly though. Making a mistake against Vietnam would ruin the whole season.

Prathet Thai has a bye and is done. With a win against Veitnam we finish ahead of Prathet Thai because we have a much better +/-. Malaysia would also pass Prathet Thai with a win against Khazkhstan as they have about the same +/- as us.. Khazakstan and Vietnam are out.

If both us and Malaysia win then +/- will determine 3rd and 4th seeding. We are currently 2 points ahead and have the easier match up.

Basically, as long as we win we would advance.

Last edited by Taiyo at 6/7/2011 1:00:58 AM

Last night Nippon U21 delivered a definitive victory over lowly Vietnam U21 by a score of 143-97. This victory places the team in third place at the conclusion of the first round and will advance to play 5 more games in the second round starting next week. Other qualifiers from our group were China (1st), Hong Kong (2nd), and Prathet Thai (4th).

The star of the game was Mitsuo Shibukji (Sapporo Fighters) who co-led in points (21), co-led in rebounds (11) and led in assists (6). This was his first game at the PF position, sliding over from SF since Omori was not feeling well (gameshape). And to think the Shibukji is only 20, can't wait to see what he will do next season.

Of note in this game is that seven different players scored in double digits. All are worth mentioning: Shibukji mentioned above, Usami Matsumura (Kotets) 21 points, Tadahiro Nakanishi (Bakinman) 20 pts, Takahiko Okada (工研人-Taiwan) 17 pts, Masatomo Saiki (Mythical Man-Mouth) 15pts, Norio Funaki (Yokozuna) 15pts, Shinya Umari (Kotets) 14 pts. Nakanishi also was co-leader in rebounding with 11.

We now await the draw for the next stage in the competition. Now that all the rif-raf have been sorted out of the contest evey game going forward will be tough. We'll do our best to make you all proud of the team.

がんばります

Season 16 SENIOR NIGHT


Since we are already eliminated from advancing any further I am declaring the last game of the season as SENIOR NIGHT.

All Seniors (21 year olds) will be fetured in tonights game and will get playing time. I thought this would be a good way to give one last thank you to the graduating players and their managers.

I'll start building the roster for Season 17 in the next week or so.