With much anticipation and great expectation, the 2006 William Jones' Cup Basketball Tournament will commence at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium this afternoon with Team Australia taking on the US.
The annual mid-summer basketball classic that began in Taipei 27 years ago will have Team Taiwan hosting seven other national squads in a nine-day, action-packed competition that should bring local hoop fans to a state of frenzy as the top players in the country aim to improve upon their second-place finish last year with a serious run for the title.
In addition to Team US and the Australians, this year's competition will also include teams from the Philippines, South Korea, Japan, Qatar, and Kazakhstan to play in a seven-game, round-robin preliminary round, before the top four finishers advance into the medal round and the remaining four squads playing in a consolation round to determine the final standings.
Standing in Team Taiwan's way in its quest for the title this year are the defending champs from the US, led by former head coach of St. John's University Mike Jarvis, and a tough Qatar crew that possesses a perfect balance of size and speed, in addition to a solid defensive scheme that could spell trouble for their opponents.
Also posing a serious threat to the Taiwanese is an all-star cast from the Philippines Basketball Association (PBA), Philippines' premier professional basketball league, which finished in a three-way tie for third place with Russia (not playing this year) and Qatar in last year's competition.
Amid the unusually intense level of competition that it confronts, Team Taiwan does have something to look forward to besides the home court advantage, as it places a lineup that that many would call the "Dream Team," consisting of the best and brightest of the Super Basketball League (SBL) in Chen "Airman" Hsin-an (arguably the best player in the country), Lin "the Beast" Chih-jeh (SBL's scoring champ in two of the past three seasons), Tien Lei (winner of the last three seasons' Most Valuable Player award), Tseng Wen-ding (the premier big man in the SBL), and Chen Chih-chung (the top defensive player in the SBL with over ten years of experience from the point guard position).
* July 8
13:00 Australia v USA
15:00 Qatar v Philippines
17:00 S Korea v Kazakhstan
19:00 Opening Ceremony
19:30 Taiwan v Japan
* July 9
13:00 Kazakhstan v Australia
15:00 USA v South Korea
17:00 Japan v Qatar
19:00 Philippines v Taiwan
* July 10
13:00 Qatar v Kazakhstan
15:00 Australia v Japan
17:00 S Korea v Philippines
19:00 Taiwan v USA
* July 11
13:00 Japan v South Korea
15:00 Philippines v Australia
17:00 Qatar v USA
19:00 Kazakhstan v Taiwan
* July 12
13:00 USA v Japan
15:00 K'stan v Philippines
17:00 South Korea v Qatar
19:00 Taiwan v Australia
* July 13
13:00 Japan v Kazakhstan
15:00 Australia v South Korea
17:00 USA v Philippines
19:00 Qatar v Taiwan
* July 14
13:00 Kazakhstan v USA
15:00 Australia v Qatar
17:00 Philippines v Japan
19:00 Taiwan v South Korea
* July 15
13:00 No. 5 v No. 8
15:00 No. 6 v No. 7
17:00 No. 4 v No. 1
19:00 No. 2 v No. 3
* July 16
13:00 7/8-place game
15:00 5/6-place game
17:00 3/4-place game
19:00 Title game
21:00 Closing Ceremony
"This should be one fun ride for us, if the lineup that we have this year plays to its full potential," head coach Lee Yun-kuan (skipper of the reigning champs the Yulon Dinos) for Team Taiwan squad said in a recent interview.
His team will have a chance to test its skills in tonight's opener against the Japanese (7:30pm game time) before they take on the Filipinos tomorrow night (7pm game time).
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