We’re Back

After a very long day, we are back in Singapore ready to play Purefoods TJ Giants tonight.

We left Hualien at 1.30pm on the train to Taipei. There was an immediate mix-up as we didn’t realise that we had allocated seats and rushed on to the last carriage. It was not until we were all onboard with all of our luggage that we found out that we were in other people’s seats. If you can imagine 15 of us with our luggage standing in the aisle, unable to move as there were other people still getting on. In actual fact, our seats were spread out all along the train, from carriage 1 thru 9. The train got moving with us still standing around in any space we could find. Eventually, most of the guys left their bags on car 9 (where I was sitting) and went to grab their seats – a good idea seeing it was at least a three hour journey.

The scenery along the way was pretty nice – green mountains, with mini waterfalls fresh with the water from the previous day’s typhoon rain. We weren’t going along all too quickly, the train was like a local one you would find in Australia – two seats either side of the aisle. After being used to the MRT in S’pore, this was almost a snail’s pace.

We noticed that we had been given two tickets stapled together at the beginning of the trip. Wondering what this was about, we realised that at a certain station, we had to change seats as someone else must have bought these earlier! I cannot remember what station it was (about 1.5hr into trip), but we sat there in the hope noone would claim these seats (there were a lot of people standing up too). Of course, someone did and we moved along to the next seat that was shown on the ticket, and politely told those people sitting there that they were our seats.

The next mishap happened as we were climbing up a hill. We started to slow down and eventually stopped, even rolling a few metres backwards. We sat there for about 5 min, when a lady came on the speaker and said something in chinese, which was followed by laughter and sighs by the passengers. Not knowing what was said (I thought maybe there was debris on the track from typhoon), I went to ask Neo the Asst coach. He said that because it was raining, the track was slippery and the train could not go uphill. We had to wait for something to pull us up the hill! Anyway, we waited for about 20-30min until we could feel ourselves going up.

We arrived in Taipei around 5.30pm (4hours later), and as our flight was at 11.55pm, we decided to have a look around before going to the airport. We went down to the Shilin night market and had a look around. I think the umbrellas stalls made a killing as everyone was buying one because of the rain (they were selling for NT$100 – about S$4.75, AU$4.00). There were mostly little craft stalls and sports stores, clothing stores – so it was nice to look around.

We caught a private bus to the airport (a little bit late) to get on our plane. After saying goodbye to our interpreters and liason officers (Linda and Roger – and yes, there were tears), we walked thru an almost deserted airport to our gate. Although the airport was deserted, our flight was full – go figure. I had a middle seat of three and when I got on, there was no overhead bag room left, so I had to cram my backpack and a birkenstock bag under my legs. There is already minimal leg room for me, so this made it worse. I wasn’t too happy as this was going to be about 5 hours with little movement.

We touched down at Changi at about 5am, everyone glad to be back and looking really tired after a massive day. We play Purefoods tonight and hopefully it can be a good game. I’m not sure on the injury status of our team right now, we had a couple of days not playing, so will find out tonight.

See ya there.

Stuck in Hualien

Typhoon Jangmi hits Taiwan today, specifically through Hualien where we are right now. All remaining games in the tournament have been canceled and we are effectively stuck in the hotel. Outside, it is raining and very windy, so no venturing out there for us. We are not sure how long the typhoon will last, it could be anywhere from one to four days. The thought is that the typhoon will hit hardest here this afternoon and then head up north toward Taipei. So if we were able to make it to Taipei, we would not be able to fly out. Most likely we will catch the train back to Taipei as road travel will not be so safe at this time.

Everything is ready to go for us in order to get us back to Singapore asap – we are all packed just waiting for a break in the typhoon, but it does not look like it will be sooner rather than later.

The hotel has boarded up its front windows ready for the typhoon. Typhoons come through this region fairly often, so we have been told that the hotel is a safe place for us. I think we will wait for it all to pass before leaving.

I’m not sure what this means for Tuesday’s game in S’pore. It is unpredictable here and we may be leaving tomorrow as planned. But if it lasts longer, we may not make it back til later in the week.

A bit of a setback, but we will try to keep occupied until it all passes over.

Game vs Japan Phoenix

Our quarter-final match-up was against Phoenix from Japan. This team was made up of mostly americans (four), Sun Ming Ming, and some other players from around asia (korea and japan).

We were on top of this team from the start of the game. We started off shooting really well and skipped out to a 10-12 point lead. Phoenix sat in a zone defence, so we were able to find the open spots. At the end of the first we were up 31-15. Blagoj, Chris and Shane were shooting the lights out. Also, our defence and rebounding limited Phoenix to usually only one shot per possession. Pathman and Sam were doing well on the boards.

From that point on, we made it into a 20 point lead and held it there with my buzzer beater 3 on the half time siren.

The second half, we played well to maintain our lead and get shots that we wanted. I was able to get a fair few open shots, ending the game with 37 points, including 10 three-pointers. We ran out winning by about 15 points.

Another good effort by the team – no Eric, no Kirkland once again, so all 8 players lifted their contributions to get the win. Everyone got on the scoreboard, Blags and Shane another good performance and everyone playing tough defence.

Sun Ming played today, and it was amazing to see how much bigger than Sam he was!

Sam vs Sun

Me taking Sun on

Sun v Sam

We play in the semi-final tomorrow, against Taiwan Beer 11.40am. If we lose, we will play at 2pm in the third-fourth playoff, and if we win we will play at 4pm in the final. Ridiculous scheduling. They will be back to back games, with almost no rest time in between.

Game vs Yulong Dinosaurs

Just a quick note to let you all know how we went tonight. We lost to Yulong (by about 13 in the end) with a somewhat depleted lineup. Kirkland did not play (hamstring), and Eric played limited minutes, still feeling the tightness in his back. I have got the flu and played today, but its tough with a head cold. We were up in the first few minutes of the game, but from then Yulong took over with their sharp shooting from 3. They are a tough team. We play at 10am tomorrow morning, so its a quick turn around. I think we play the Japanese team Phoenix – they have about 6-7 imports and Sun Ming. Should be a good match up.

Sorry I haven’t written too much of a write up, not feeling too good at the moment, hopefully feel better in the morning and can give you all a better account of tomorrow’s game.

Game vs dMedia (Taiwan)

Our 2nd game in Taiwan was today against dMedia. As I quickly mentioned, we ran out winners by about 12 points (sorry for not knowing for sure, but I tend to just register the win – I think score was 101-89).

Much better temperature wise in the stadium, us being the second game of the day, the A/C was nice.

No Eric Sandrin again (back stiffness), Sam Harris got his call-up to start the game. Both teams started pretty much neck and neck throughout the first quarter. Armein Kirkland pulled his hamstring mid-way thru the first quarter and did not return back to the game – another player down! Scores pretty close at end of the first.

Second quarter was much the same as the first. dMedia were shooting pretty well from the 3 and we were matching it with our shooting and inside play. No team could get a break on the other, we were up for the majority of the game.

In the second half, we were able to put some defensive stops together and pulled out to a 10 point lead. We kept the lead until the last quarter, where dMedia came back to within 1 point (85-84) with about 6 min remaining – some sharp shooting from outside brought them back. About four of their players got fouled out during the game, and Chris Daniel for us fouled out too (now seven players active). dMedia had about 16 players on their bench, so it was no problem four of them fouled out. That was as close as dMedia got to us in the game and from there we made some clutch baskets and hit our free-throws to close out the game. It was a really good game from us considering the injuries and being able to weather dMedia’s scoring runs.

A good performance by all healthy players for us – Shane and Al running the point well, Blagoj again consistent and played well with Sam inside, Chris and Fitzy giving some valuable minutes and Pathman making some good plays. For myself, I had 47 44 points (there are no stats available, and I haven’t seen the scoresheet) and the team did really well to get me the shots I wanted. I also shot about 20 free-throws in the game, which contributed to my score.

It might have been the shoes which did it for me tonight. Yesterday, while walking around the shops in Hualien, I came across a nike store selling the Zoom BB II’s. I wear the Zoom BB because it is a great and comfortable shoe, so when I saw these at AU$100, I had to get them.

My new Red and Gold Zoom BB II

I could do a review on them, but my first game in them I scored 47 44, so what else is there to say? They match nicely with the uniform too. If nike want me to do a review, maybe they can pass some shoes on to me

Post-game, we stretched, went back to the hotel and had ice baths for ten minutes straight – I couldn’t feel my legs afterwards. We then went for Japanese BBQ, where you cook your own food. All you can eat, so the players were very happy. A very nice meal.

Japanese BBQ in Hualien

Ok.. that just about does it for today, sorry I do not have any photos of the game because my camera ran out of battery (too much uploading of photos and not noticing the juice going down). Will try and get some tomorrow.

Game tomorrow is at 5.20pm vs Yulong (the best team in Taiwan). I think we already make it thru to the quarter-finals regardless of the outcome tomorrow. Will let you all know how we go.

Game vs Taiwan Mobile (game 1)

We kicked off the tournament against Taiwan Mobile (I think – I’m not sure what it says on their Jerseys, but I’m going on the website info).

The stadium is quite a good stadium, fairly big, nice floors and rims. When we first walked in, we noticed one thing – it was soooo hot. It must have been like 40 degrees and no air circulating. Apparently because we were the first game of the day, the aircon had not been turned on yet. It was switched on as we entered the place, but it was still stifiling hot. As it turned out, by half time the place had cooled down.

We started off the game pretty slowly. With no Eric Sandrin playing (his back was still tight from A21 game), we had to cover inside a little bit more. The Taiwanese team was an ok team, but I thought we were the better side from the start. The scores stayed pretty much level throughout the first half with a Taiwan player banking a 3 on the buzzer to tie it up. Oh yeah, did I mention it was HOT in the gym?

After the half, we seemed to turn up a gear. Our defence was a little better, we started to run a bit more, however, our opponents seemed to stay with us, our best lead being about 10 points.

Things got a little rowdy with 7min 30s left in the game. A guy from TM drove for a lay-up and stuck his leg out, kicking Blagoj in the groin (fairly obviously). Blagoj wasn’t happy with this play and went after the guy, and a bit of a shouting match occurred. The refs had a bit of a hard time making a decision with both teams yelling at them. Anyway, what resulted was Blagoj being thrown out of the game, TM getting two points for the basket, THREE free-throws and possession of the ball. We were up ten, so potentially they could have had 7-8 points in the one play! Crazy.

To our credit we play smartly and with some great shooting from Al Vergara and Kirkland, we finished the game off winning eventually by 10. TM could definitely shoot the ball and that’s something all the teams will be good at. A good first up effort and also shake out some of the cobwebs from our travel day yesterday.

Tomorrow we take on a team called dMedia.

Arriving in Taiwan

Good news! There is free wifi in my room in Taiwan, so daily updates here should be coming your way.

We arrived in Taipei at about 6pm. There was trouble with getting Al through customs because of visa issues, so we ended up waiting at the airport for nearly two hours. Finally, he was let through and we got onto our bus towards Hualien. The bus was very nice, big seats, tv screens.

Boys on the bus

We watched two movies along the way, as we heard it was a four hour journey (that’s as long as it took from S’pore to Taipei). First movie was Made of Honour, which coach Gordie found absolutely hilarious.

About 2 hours into the trip we stopped off for something to eat, something that was familiar to us, McDonald’s 24hr McCafe.

McDonald's (Shane's restaurant)

A good feed and we got back on to the bus. Next movie was Semi-Pro (a basketball movie starring Will Ferrell), which took us pretty much to the hotel. Never have I been on such a windy road, with twists and turns going up the mountains. Almost to the point of getting motion sick

We eventually arrived at the hotel about 1am, with everyone so tired from the day’s travel. The hotel is nice from what we’ve seen. Good rooms, and internet.

Our first game is today at 3.40pm, against Taiwan Mobile. Will be interesting to see how we play after travelling yesterday. From now on it’s a pretty hectic schedule, with a game everyday. You can find the schedule on Taiwan Hoops.

Taiwan Tournament Info

Here is some info on the tournament we are playing in Taiwan. Thanks to a good friend in Singapore for finding this out (you know who you are).

Looks like there are ten teams, with most of the SBL teams playing and apparently they think we are the Singapore National Team. Might be in for a surprise

Btw, this is the photo that Daphne made me aware of…hmm…

Game 2 vs Air 21

The rematch between us and Air 21 was played last night. It was a tighter, more physical game than game 1 (if that’s possible). The Slingers have a game report and stats that can be found here, also Jason has an excellent recount of the game here. We ended winning 98-85, and taking the series 2-0. We also saved the club $10,000 they would have paid Air21 had they beaten us.

I won’t really go into details of the game, you can read that on the other sites. I will however, give you what you are all hanging out to hear – How is Eric?

For those of you who weren’t there, with 13 seconds remaining, Eric was on the run and taking off for a dunk, when a player from A21 (deCampo I think), walked underneath him and took out his legs. Eric came down horizontally and landed heavily on his back. Everyone who knows basketball knows that this was a pretty dirty play. Eric could have been a lot seriously injured. Ian has posted up some video of it on youtube and the foul occurs at 4:55. There is also highlights of other quarters of the game.

Anyway, I saw the big guy today and it was good to see he was walking. He said his back and neck are pretty stiff (no surprise) and the doc gave him some medication to take to help ease the inflammation. From my early diagnosis, he should be right to play our next game against Purefoods.

I think everyone is a little battered and bruised from last night (I know I am!), but nothing major.

We travel to Taiwan tomorrow to play in a tournament in Hualien. From what I know there are 11 teams from Taiwan, Korea, Japan competing in this tournament which runs from 23-28 sept. I think there is some prize money up for grabs. If we make it all the way through to the finals, we will have played 6 games in 5 days! We will arrive back in Singapore on Monday night 11pm, in time to play on Tuesday against Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants

I’ll try to keep you updated on our tourny in Taiwan, but I don’t know how readily I’ll have access to the net with 11 teams staying at the hotel, business center might get a workout. Apologies in advance if I can’t blog over there (if you have any ideas on getting internet in Hualien let me know today!). Never know, there might be free wifi for everyone…

Vs Air21 photos

If you haven’t already checked out pics from the game taken by Nic and Jason, here are some more pics courtesy of Francis. Thanks mate.