Veteran coach and former star player Chou Chun-san, 48, has agreed to take over as coach of the national basketball team, following months of speculation and negotiations between the Chinese Taipei Basketball Association and sports officials.
Chou said he was contacted on Tuesday after the governing body held a selection meeting and agreed to take the top job after a few days of consideration.
The post had been vacant since a judicial investigation into Yen Chia-hua, head coach of the Super Basketball League’s (SBL) Taiwan Beer team, began in February over allegations that he placed underground bets on games involving teams he coached, including the 2015 William Jones Cup.
The investigation continues, and Yen was questioned and released after posting bail of NT$50,000.
Chou had been an assistant coach for Taiwan Beer since 2006 and assumed the team’s top post for the rest of the season and the playoffs following Yen’s resignation in February.
“I spoke with Taiwan Beer executives, who gave me their support,” Chou said in a statement. “After self-reflection, I decided to take over the national team, as I have been in the game for a long time and was a member of the team.”
“It will be a whole new challenge for me, and I hope all the coaching staff and players will work together diligently to undertake this important responsibility,” he added.
“I have a good idea for player selection and those who will fill my coaching staff,” Chou said. “My plan is to promote and cultivate more young players, as well as those with a few years of experience. I want them to improve through actual game experience in international competitions.”
Chou’s main task will be to lead the team to qualify for this year’s FIBA Asia Cup in Lebanon from Aug. 10 to Aug. 20, which will require the national squad to finish in the top three at the East Asia Basketball Championship in Nagano, Japan, from June 3 to June 7.
His tenure is expected to continue through to the Asian Games in Jakarta in August next year, with an extension likely if the team performs well at the competitions.
Basketball executives reportedly considered at least five other candidates, including Yen Hsin-shu, Yang Tse-yi, Hsu Chin-che and American coach Charlie Parker, a former NBA assistant coach who is to lead the national team, composed mainly of college players, at the Universiade.
Chou, a well-known figure in the sport, has extensive experience, having played for the “Flying Camel” team in the nation’s amateur era in the 1980s and the Hung Kuo Elephants as a control guard, as well as in Taiwan’s former Chinese Basketball Alliance professional league from 1995 to 1998.
From 2001 to 2003, he played for the Sina Lions in China before returning to Taiwan to play different roles in the SBL.
Tainan TSG Hawks slugger Steven Moya, who is leading the CPBL in home runs, has withdrawn from this weekend’s All-Star Game after the unexpected death of his wife. Moya’s wife began feeling severely unwell aboard a plane that landed at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday evening. She was rushed to a hospital, but passed away, the Hawks said in a statement yesterday. The franchise is assisting Moya with funeral arrangements and hopes fans who were looking forward to seeing him at the All-Star Game can understand his decision to withdraw. According to Landseed Medical Clinic, whose staff attempted to save Moya’s wife,
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt yesterday backed Nick Champion de Crespigny to be the team’s “roving scavenger” after handing him a shock debut in the opening Test against the British and Irish Lions Test in Brisbane. Hard man Champion de Crespigny, who spent three seasons at French side Castres before moving to the Western Force this year, is to get his chance tomorrow with first-choice blindside flanker Rob Valetini not fully fit. His elevation is an eye-opener, preferred to Tom Hooper, but Schmidt said he had no doubt about his abilities. “I keep an eye on the Top 14 having coached there many years
ON A KNEE: In the MLB’s equivalent of soccer’s penalty-kicks shoot-out, the game was decided by three batters from each side taking three swings each off coaches Kyle Schwarber was nervous. He had played in Game 7 of the MLB World Series and homered for the US in the World Baseball Classic (WBC), but he had never walked up to the plate in an All-Star Game swing-off. No one had. “That’s kind of like the baseball version of a shoot-out,” Schwarber said after homering on all three of his swings, going down to his left knee on the final one, to overcome a two-homer deficit. That held up when Jonathan Aranda fell short on the American League’s final three swings, giving the National League a 4-3 swing-off win after
Seattle’s Cal Raleigh defeated Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero 18-15 in Monday’s final to become the first catcher to win the Major League Baseball Home Run Derby. The 28-year-old switch-hitter, who leads MLB with 38 homers this season, won US$1 million by capturing the special event for sluggers at Atlanta’s Truist Park ahead of yesterday’s MLB All-Star Game. “It means the world,” Raleigh said. “I could have hit zero home runs and had just as much fun. I just can’t believe I won. It’s unbelievable.” Raleigh, who advanced from the first round by less than 25mm on a longest homer tiebreaker, had his father
RSS