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  • Japanese B-League 2016-2017 Season

    The maiden season of the B-League is underway and Link Tochigi has acquired Kosuke Takeuchi. Hiroshima sold the rights of Takeuchi to Brex as Takeuchi is too good to play in Division II.

    Division I B-League

    East
    Akita Northern Happinets
    Alvark Tokyo
    Chiba Jets
    Levanga Hokkaido
    Link Tochigi Brex
    Sendai 89ers

    Central
    Hitachi SunRockers
    Niigata Albirex Basketball
    Sanen Neophoenix
    Toshiba Kawasaki Brave Thunders
    Toyama Grouses
    Yokohama B-Corsairs

    West
    Kyoto Hannaryz
    Nagoya Diamond Dolphins
    Osaka Evessa
    Ryukyu Golden Kings
    SeaHorses Mikawa
    Shiga Lakestars
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    HERE WE STAY UNTIL THE COWBELLS COME HOME

  • #2
    A 60 game regular season is up for the division 1 of the B-League. September 22 season opener will pit Toyota Tokyo Alvark vs Okinawa Ryukyu Golden-Kings. Both squads are quite accomplished in their previous exploits in the JBL / NBL and BJL before the two merged.

    Imagine the SG battles of Okinawa's Ryuichi Kishimoto and Toyota's Daiki Tanaka, which is a fandom dream until now.

    Other games for the B-League maiden season opener: Sendai 89ers at Chiba Jets; Hitachi Sunrockers Tokyo Shibuya at Yokohama B-Corsairs; Niigata Albirex BB at Toyama Grouses; SeaHorses Mikawa at Shiga Lakestars; Kyoto Hannaryz at Nagoya Diamond Dolphins; and Levanga Hokkaido at Osaka Evessa.
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    • #3
      After 10 years, Joji Takeuchi has left Hitachi and has joined Tokyo Toyota Alvark. Interesting fact is that Kosuke Takeuchi once played for Toyota from 2012 to 2014.
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      • #4
        Turns out that Fukushima lost its star: Masaya Karimata, a terrific shot creator and playmaker. Karimata has joined Aisin. Thus SeaHorses are again loaded: Hiejima, Kanamaru, Hashimoto and Karimata.

        The challenge is for the team to actually share the ball after their epic meltdown in the NBL Finals where offense crapped up to one and done shooting.
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        • #5
          Chiba Jets will announce the signing of Hilton Armstrong, the former NBAer journeyman PF and once Besiktas player.
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          • #6
            Turns out that the visiting George Washington team that includes Yuta Watanabe will play Okinawa Golden Kings with a friendly alongside their three friendlies versus the national team.
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            • #7
              Osaka Evessa signed former NBA big man Josh Harrellson. It seems Osaka is fronting a twin-tower approach much like that of the top NBL teams as Harrellson will join Xavier Gibson.
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              • #8
                Takuya Kawamura now with Yokohama after a let down season with Mitsubishi last year in the NBL. It is his last chance to climb into player relevance as Mitsubishi chose to sign Tenketsu Harimoto to a good deal and let Kawamura walk away.
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                • #9
                  First ever game last night: Toyota Tokyo won over Okinawa Golden Kings 80-75 with Toyota's foreigners mostly carrying the team. Okinawa's foreigners like Charlo and Hamilton got their game going in the second half but all momentum was on Toyota's side.

                  Still, great team play coming from Toyota. Troy Gillenwater, a foreign player with a recorded history of ISO plays, worked well with the troops composed of Baranski and Garrett.

                  I'll give props to Joji Takeuchi and Tanaka in keeping pace with the foreigners in this one. Takeuchi, in working as a tandem with Baranski manned the boards while Daiki Tanaka was more of a facilitator in this one.

                  As for Okinawa, Shuhei Kitagawa, still representing the old league, proved that the elite players of his class can match toe to toe with the NBL had to offer. Golden Kings were sloppy but Toyota's prowling defense had them collecting errors that Toyota pounced on.

                  Okinawa can still get better as the season progresses as I felt that the team is less cohesive than what Toyota has shown.
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                  • #10
                    BLeague opened with very little fanfare but several clubs still retained the troubling inconsistency / complacency to actually sweep an assignment.

                    Link Tochigi - Akita

                    Seiya Ando and Shigehiro Taguchi made a good account of themselves in Game 1 as Akita pulled off the upset against Brex. What made the upset so emphatic was the Akita beat Link Tochigi in their own preferred pace of uptempo and wide open floor space. Game 2 saw Brex adding more pressure into the back-court and it helped curb Akita's momentum and Tochigi making a run in the third and fourth to split the series.

                    San'en Phoenix - Kanagawa

                    OSG aka Hamamatsu aka San'en Phoenix swept the reigning NBL Japan champions in this one. Kanagawa's Nick Fazekas looked all alone in this one, doing a bit of everything in game 1 while his teammates failed to show up. San'en in game 1 had Dozier, Tawatari and Roby push the pace of the offense, often exploiting the mismatch of the smaller Kanagawa squad.

                    Game 2 saw San'en double team and limit Kanagawa inside by clamping up on Fazekas, who fizzed late in the game. Not having finals MVP Naoto Tsuji spelled the difference in this series as no way Fuji or Shinoyama can match his shooting or offensive output.

                    Aisin - Shiga

                    Aisin almost lost game 1 due them unnable to stop Shiga's Mavunga in the 1st to 3rd quarter as Mavunga ran roughshod against defenders like Kanamaru and Tomoya. The breakthrough happened in the 4th where Aisin ramped up the uptempo attack and taking advantage of a tiring Mavunga. JR Sakuragi proved valuable in this one.

                    Game 2 saw Aisin pushing up tempo once again and causing Mavunga some early foul trouble. Kanamaru, breaking free from a tiring defensive assignment was hitting shot after shot. In the second half, Aisin made this simple: tossing the ball up to Edwards and slowing the tempo to avoid a Shiga comeback.

                    For Shiga, David Weaver and Samba Faye need to play much better or they are looking at an early ouster.
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                    • #11
                      Finally was able to watch the Yokohama - Hitachi game. Takuya Kawamura has changed in a lot of ways. First he is no longer that shoot first type of guard as he tries in earnest to rotate and flip to the open space. Call it a higher level of gameplay awareness and mending his past when he was on the crosshairs of pundits criticizing that he often shoots his team out of rhythm. Now, Kawamura is looking to pass and work with the offense, maybe also a way to compensate to his regressed physical skills of that first step no longer as potent as before or that lift from a step back no longer giving him optimal results.

                      Game 1 was awful for the team except for Kawamura, whom who could have done more had he reverted to shoot more like his form of old to maybe lift his team when the likes of Parmer, Washburn and Faye are visibly struggling. Hitachi in their year one without Joji Takeuchi, leaned heavily on their foreigners with the occasional contributions of Hirose and Mitsuhara got the job done as Yokohama could not defend anything.

                      Game 2 saw Kawamura struggling and it was only Washburn to got his offense going as the team played sloppy, often failing to connect those passes on swing. Kenta Hirose was in vintage form, being a do it all. Yokohama will need more from Faye and Parmer to survive the later rounds.
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                      • #12
                        Hitachi and Niigata split the weekend series. Game 1 was really close up until the 4th quarter where Hitachi went inside to Ira Brown and he delivered, using that mini post up game to score those crucial points -- overcoming his early foul trouble. RT Guinn played well, filling the void of Joji Takeuchi's post up and three point game.

                        Niigata bounced back in the second game where they used an uptempo and quick ball-movement to cause trouble in what looks like a tired tired Hitachi where Ira Brown barely ran. Kei Igarashi was running, passing and making plays and the former Nishinomiya stalwart, Davante Gardner chipped in the in the 3rd, often attacking Hitachi's slow front-court just as they were about to settle. Great game from Clint Chapman, with his shooting, forced Hitachi's front-court outside their interior coverage.

                        Meanwhile, Aisin is now 2-2 after dropping the series against Nagoya where Aisin barely defended anything and Nagoya found their groove. Taito Nakahigashi was brilliant in game 1, outperforming Kosuke Kanamaru. Second game, Aisin tried to double up Nakahigashi and it worked but Nagoya went to Jerome Tillman, posting up and exposing the interior defense of Aisin.

                        Aisin was playing well offensively, making team ball a fun to watch game, but if you intend to win through firepower and not huste and defend, you get these kind of games.
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                        • #13
                          Toyota Alvark is a well rounded team that can ignite an uptempo game courtesy of their quick hitting half-court setup. Only weakness really is their defensive tendencies against athletic hybrid forwards in the mold of Chiba's Michael Parker (former Alvark player) and Ryumo Ono. Toyota's wing forwards like Daiki Tanaka and Shohei Kikuchi are actually 2 guards and can't defend teams that have foreigners with versatile forwards.

                          But if you put in bigger forwards on wings like Baransky or Gillenwater, they don't have the quickness to defend either.
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                          • #14
                            Saw the replay of the Toyota - Link Tochigi series. Game 1 saw Toyota being pulverized by Ryan Rossiter's perimeter game where Troy Gillenwater, the defensive man assigned to Rossiter got lost a couple of times in the shuffle, leaving Rossiter open. When Rossiter gets the groove, those shots are nearly automatic. It is another example of Toyota having trouble against power forwards who can shoot and play the perimeter game.

                            Game 2 saw a turnaround. Toyota did not defend better, but the offense was firing Daiki Tanaka used speed and his improved shooting to practically expose Link Tochigi's guard defense. Gillenwater was also streaking and got the better of Rossiter this time. Link Tochigi just ran out of gas in the fourth as Toyota unleashed a 13-0 run in the quarter to win.

                            Game highlights the matchup of the Takeuchi twins for the first time in the B-League.
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                            • #15
                              Saw the replay of the Sanen Phoenix - Brave Thunder weekend series. Phoenix is an uptempo team since their previous incarnations but it seems that this Thunder squad was not prepared for the game as the fast breaking Phoenix players were in fact positioning themselves for open threes and they converted.

                              Toshiba struggled with the flow of their offense with Naoto Tsuji and Nick Fazekas mostly alternating shots. Although the Thunder would find their footing in the 4th quarter, Phoenix had built a sizable lead to preserve for the win. Olu Ashalou, Tatsuya Suzuki and Shingo Okada kept the offense in pace.

                              In the second game, Phoenix looked worn out from their frenzied pace in game 1. This is where the Thunder took advantage as Tsuji and Shinoyama orchestrated the offense by focusing on Fazekas and finding the winger, Ryan Spangler wide open as Phoenix used a double team inside.

                              The weird part is that Phoenix won comfortably even when Roby was struggling but was blown out when he was shooting good.
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