With a slogan of “Emergence of the Heroes,” the 2015-2016 Super Basketball League (SBL) regular season starts this afternoon when the Yulon Luxgens take on the Fubon Braves at the Banciao Gymnasium in New Taipei City.
With the addition of Jeremy Lin’s younger brother, Joseph Lin, and former Phillipines national team icon Marcus Douthit, as well as the coaching debut of Ben Metcalf of Pure Youth Construction, replacing the departed Hsu Chin-che, the season promises to be an exciting one, as the seven squads begin a five-month journey in their quest for the title next spring.
“With five of the seven teams starting the new season with new coaches at the helm and a slew of big-name players looking to showcase their talents, we shall have an incredible season this year,” Chinese Taipei Basketball Association director-general Ting Shou-chung said at a press conference earlier this week.
Ting said that with most of the usual venues under renovation in preparation for the 2017 Universiade in Taipei and therefore not available this season, 85 percent of the games would be played at the Banciao Gymnasium, with the exception of the Changhua County Gymnasium, which is due to host league games for two weeks next month.
With a similar format to last year, each week’s games commence on Thursday evenings and run through to Sunday, with two games scheduled to be played each day to provide fans with an appropriate dosage of hoops excitement.
Pure Youth’s new head coach will miss the services of big man Quincy Davis, who announced his retirement earlier in the month. He is being replaced by former Fubon great and last season’s Foreign Player of the Year Darian Townes, who was not re-signed by the Braves.
Townes will be working closely with Davis, who will remain on the Pure Youth coaching staff.
Also returning for his second stint in Taiwan is former Taiwan Mobile Leopards great Luke Nevill of Australia, who will anchor the interior defense for Bank of Taiwan under the guidance of head coach Hung Rei-cheng.
Last, but not least among the newcomers is Fubon Braves center Earl Barron, whose 213cm frame played a big part in the Braves’ decision to forgo Townes in favor of the former National Basketball Association standout.
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