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Week 2 Preview – Australia

Coming off the big upset of the Philippines, the morale of our team is extremely high. In an interview last night Naoya Ueda commented, “That last game was the most exciting game of my life. We can’t wait to get back on the floor and see what we can do." Recently Star PF Yusuke Furusawa could be heard saying, “Hey, if we can beat them, then why can’t we beat anyone, maybe even China.” Well, I guess that would include our next opponent, Australia.

This will be a big second test for the team. The Aussies are currently ranked 38th in the World. They handled their first opponent, Macau, with ease. Blowing them out by 33 with a big second half surge. In the last Asia tournament they finished second (behind Philippines) in their round 1 group at 5-1, and then finished 3rd in the second round at 3-2.

The game begins at 7:30pm tonight Japan time. Come root on the team and join in the chat room to discuss how things are going.

Nippon 2-0 !! Good job.

Great win!

Japan is making heads turn.... ;)

Definitely puts the job the last guy did in an interesting perspective.

万歳 万歳 万歳
Banzai! Banzai! Banzai!

National team press release:


After 2-0 Start Nippon NT Looking to Advance

With a second straight upset win over Team Australia the Nippon National Team has its sights on advancing to the next round and trying to maximize its good fortunes. In a game that went back and forth all night our team took the lead for good with just 2:00 left on the clock and closed out a 99-91 victory over the heavily favored Aussies. There were many heroes in this game including leading scorer Furusawa (19pts), top rebounder Hayakawa (18), top assists Ochi (7), and top steals Tagawa (3). But the biggest highlight for the night was the bench play from Hara, Eguchi, Sonoda, Kouzuki, and Ueda who together average a +13 +/- over their opponents. Both Hara and Kouzuki had been called up to the team just the day before the game.

The Next opponent for team Japan is the also undefeated Malaysian Nationals. Both the Malay NT Manager Simply Vince and top Malay fanboy Ashurri made a point to post comments directly to Nippon manager Taiyo, a clear sign they will not be taking us lightly. Hearing this Furusawa (always the loud mouth) responded, “Bring them on. We’ll be ready for them.” To which Coach Taiyo responded, “That boy better learn to shut up or somebody is going to put him in his place someday.”


Week 2 Depth Chart:

Point Guard
Takatoshi Tagawa - Baikinman
Rikkio Eguchi - bebop Jazz
Haruki Fujii - SAMANTH BASKET

Shooting Guard
Hideki Ochi - BSC Bern West
*Soichi Hara - KoriPullo-Pojat
Haruki Fujii - SAMANTH BASKET

Small Forward
Tooro Oishi - Stunners
Naoya Ueda - Swoosh
Haruki Fujii - SAMANTH BASKET

Power Forward
Yusuke Furusawa - SLZH
Hirofumi Sonoda - Kyoto Shogun
Mitsuo Shibukji - Sapporro Fighters

Center
Satashi Hayakawa - es-es
*Kaname Kouzuki - Kyoto Shogun
Mitsuo Shibukji - Sapporro Fighters



*Indicates player was added to NT this week.


Last edited by Taiyo at 2/28/2012 9:15:10 AM

It looks like adding Hara and Kouzuki was a masterstroke as our bench was excellent. Kouzuki got the best rating on our team, Hara got the second best. It is a funny match but while our stars like Furusawa, Tagawa and Oishi were on we were losing. While Hara, Kouzuki, Eguchi, Ueda and the mighty Sonoda were on we were winning big in a short time. Go the bench!

Kouzuki got the best rating on our team

Don't let it go to your head.......

The funny thing about ratings, tend to have higher ratings the less minutes you play. Probably becuase they are more fresh on average for the portion that they do play.

Last edited by Taiyo at 3/1/2012 6:42:20 AM