It takes only 18,000 yen to get you in
Yep, it’s really a gym
You may have noticed that things have been a little quiet on the CBAB front lately. With Diddy on circuit and Haggard in Yokohama, Japan for business. Haggard found time to check out Japan’s BJ League, Japan’s professional league with 10 teams split over an East & West Conference. Here is his review.
Ryan Fitzgerald kept the Happy Nets in it early on. The import centre nailing an array of threes. Fitzgerald has obviously been spending as much time working on his shooting as he has on his designer beard. When the Happy Nets stopped involving Fitzgerald the offence dried up. At quarter time the score was 19 – 19.
When Thomas Kennedy checked into the game the B-Corsairs went on a tear, much to the delight of the crowd. Kennedy racked up multiple points as fast as his release. The Happy Nets with no such luck, coach Nakamura calling timeouts to realign his troops.
The Cheerleaders barked instructions to the crowd in an almost military like manner, but in the most polite way possible. The crowd abided and actioned their every command, dancing and generally waving their hands all over the place.
As the crowd danced so did the B-Corsairs, breaking down the Happy Nets defence, scoring 28 points for the quarter. The Happy Nets managed five points, two of those coming from the free throw line with less than a minute to go. What was odd was that a club employee can wave a rather large flag behind the basket as the opponents shoot free throws, If it was Oz Senstock would have a coronary. At the half the B-Corsairs led 47 – 24.
A remix of Van Halen’s Jump kicked off the third quarter, the song striking the right chord with the spectators, though if you thought the crowd was loud for Van Halen, it was nothing compared to when B-Corsair forward, Pape Faye threw down the only dunk of the game. It was apparent the Happy Nets were never going to make this a contest reaffirmed when human victory cigar Takeshi Hotta checked into the game late in the third. The Happy Nets counteracted by sending their human commiseration cigar Yuki Yamaguchti on to the game, yes, all 5’6 of him. The B-Corsairs running away, totally decimating the Happy Nets, 83 – 51.
The B-Corsairs, Draelon Burns scored a team high 20 points, Masayuki Kabaya scored 16 and Thomas Kennedy scored 15. The Nets were appauling on the boards, giving up 20 offensive rebounds and losing the rebound count 56 to 31. Dan Fitzgerald had 12 points, Dion Harris 10 and the rest of the Happy Nets were very stock exchange.
Haggard’s thoughts on the BJ League:
- Man to man defence was the defence of choice. I failed to see anything that resembled a zone.
- If the breakaway foul is in their interpretation of the game it was clearly missed. If so that would probably be the only call the skinniest refs I’ve ever seen got wrong.
- The Happy Nets coach called his final time out with two and a half minutes to go in a blow out, was probably a pointless decision.
- Ball movement is preferred on offence, there is very little player movement, just passing until someone has an open shot. As a result, no bad shots are taken
- As a result of this, when a player gets trapped by a double team there is very little effort from his teammates to provide him with an easy pass.
- Defensive rotations are slow and help defence is too late due to off-ball defenders overcommitting on the wings
- As a competition, the BJ League seems weaker than the NBL, the imports clearly dominate.
- All teams have their logo in English
B-Corsairs fan for life. Go Go B-Cor
