MA News: Chinese Taipei Men’s and Women’s Basketball Teams Ready to Begin Training for Bangkok
June 4th, 2007
Last week, the Chinese Taipei University Sports Federation announced the preliminary rosters for the Chinese Taipei’s Men’s and Women’s Basketball Teams that will be competing in the 2007 Summer Universiade in Bangkok. The women’s roster was selected after Taiwan’s collegiate basketball league, called UBA (short for University Basketball Association), came to a conclusion last month. All seventeen players on the roster were selected for their outstanding performances during the 2007 UBA season. The men’s roster was chosen by a slightly different method. A selection tournament was organized in which the top 8 teams of the UBA were invited to compete in front of the selection committee members. After some rigorous competition, the men’s roster spots were filled by UBA players from different universities. The roster for both the men and women will be narrowed down to 12 players each. These young men and women finalists will have the honor to represent Chinese Taipei Basketball at the 2007 Summer Universiade in Bangkok. Due to the implementation of new age qualification for the Universiade’s basketball event this year, the selection committee sought out young talent in the university ranks. Committee members purposely did not sought out the service of national team players, opening up the opportunity for many upstart but equally talented university players to have experience on the international stage.
The Men’s Basketball Team is headed by Coach Lee of the Chinese Cultural University, who is distinguished for his vast international experiences. He coached the men’s national team that won 4th place in the Asian Championships in 1991. He also led the men’s national team to a first place finish in the 1997 Busan East Asian Games. This time he will be assisted by Coach Chen of the Taipei Physical Education College and Coach Wong of Hsing Wu College, both of whom are fine head coaches in their own right. Many of the players on the present roster previously participated in the 2006 1st Asian University Basketball Championship that took place last October in Taipei. Coach Chen, who was the head coach, led the Chinese Taipei team to a second place finish in that championship. The Chinese Taipei men’s team will face tough competition in Finland and Russia for the preliminary round. The last time Chinese Taipei competed in the basketball event of the Universiade was in the 2003 Daegu Universiade, when they placed 16th out of 24 teams. The Chinese Taipei’s Women’s Team has always done well internationally. The last time they competed, in Izmir in 2005, they placed fifth overall. The women’s team will be coached by the present head coach of the Chinese Taipei women’s national team Coach Hung. Coach Hung has also plenty of experiences in the international scene. She recently led the Chinese Taipei team to a best-ever second place finish in the Doha East Asian Games. At the 2002 Busan Asian Games, she led the team to a third place finish. She is assisted by Coach Wong of National Taipei College of Nursing and Coach Deng of Oriental Institute of Technology. Majority of the women’s players selected for the roster are mostly present members of the national team that will be competing in the Olympic qualifying Asian Championships in June, 2007. Come August, the Chinese Taipei Women’s Team will have already gained valuable experiences playing together, and be ready to present tough competition for all who will face them. In the preliminary round, Chinese Taipei is grouped with Serbia, Czech Republic, and Mozambique, with Serbia being the top seed, given that they placed 2nd at the Izmir Universiade.
