Team Analysis (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER): Last updated 2/23/2009
A BALL2: They went from one of the sweetest names around to one of the more bland. The West Campus All-Stars are now A Ball’s farm team and they’ve chosen a name that, well, at least puts them at the top of this alphabetized list. Last season, while they were at the top of the heap defensively, they were the pits when it came to offense. No one had ever in their lifetime seen a team that was as equally good on defense as they were bad on offense (last in the division in team offense.) It was weird. Well, maybe a name change will shed that old offense and kick things up a notch. Drew Chen will bring the storm while Brent Morita furnishes the calm. Everyone else - Jae Ha Hwang, Pete Hwang, Nihar Jhaveri, Chris Kim, and Jack Run must bring their lunch pails, hard hats and go to work.
| EOTE: Captain Javier Colayco runs an education company by day but may do most of his teaching at night as he brings back team EOTE (they will not be known as what the acronym originally stood for, but rather just the acronym thank you very much.) EOTE struggled in their inaugural season, but started to gel a bit towards the end of the season as teammates learned where to go on the floor, what plays worked, and just all-around became more comfortable playing in a competitive environment. Thanks to Coach Colayco’s pushing, EOTE looks like they have a chance to make major break throughs this season. Roy Yu is a stabilizing force inside and in Dan Vongtama, they have a bona fide 3-point threat who plays with the fire of some of Duke’s most passionate players (think Steve Wojo.) Jimmy Chang joins the fray and his signing could be the boost pack EOTE wears to rid themselves of all those jokes they had to endure last season about being easy on the rim.
| GOOD NEWS BEARS: If last year's 0-3 record in the Mission Madness tournament at Farleigh Dickinson is any indication, the Good News Bears might be bringing in more good news for their opponents than for themselves this season in their first foray into the DL. DL veteran Sung-Mo Cho brings together his friends from the Good News Church and pick up games on 42nd and FDR. Watch for newcomer forward Bom Kim to be the AAA version of David Lee (of the Knicks, not HBI) with his high energy and penchant for rebounding. Cali transplant guard Wayne Van brings his leadership and all-around game in the point guard spot. Look for these two to be the pillars of this rookie team. Rumored, but not confirmed is Moneyball big man Brian Zhang to be joining the Bears to man the middle.
| NYC GRITTY COMMITTEE: Don’t sleep on Gritty. This team is one on the rise. While they finished 3-5 in their inaugural campaign last season, they had several bright spots that they expect to build upon. Victor Chia comes off a brilliant season, one in which he earned All-DL honors. He’s learning to play with his back to the basket still and as he makes strides there, he will undoubtedly make a run for the rebounding title after grabbing 10.7/game last season. Kwon Lim and Kyu Lee have taken on the 2KL moniker and their games do resemble NBA 2K Live’s a little bit – uptempo, run, and gun. Captain Jiwon Kim has surely done some recruiting as well as he is hardly a man to rest on his laurels.
| PAY 4 BUGS: This promises to be one of the most entertaining teams of the season. CS Hsia, who will give Vic Chia a run for the rebounding title, brings in a gang of compadres from all over – uptown, downtown, Brooklyn, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. In their first game (a win over EOTE), things were circus-like with players running on and off the court constantly, guys yelling at each other in various dialects, and calling them by their numbers and not names. “Hey, #50! Come out! 50!” (And #50 did not even know that was his own number.) James Hsueh, a DL-vet (one season with the AL’s Rage), looks to be the leading force on offense while Henry Miao may steal his way onto the All-Defensive team when all is said and done. As for what the team name means? We don’t know, but it lends itself to the circus-like atmosphere.
| TEAM BINY: One thing is for sure. Captain Rich Cheng will change this team name before it’s all said and done. As sure as the sun will rise, teams that RC heads change their team name each and every season, usually after the season has already started. What will it be this time? Well, as we try to guess we will also go ahead and guess that this will be his best team yet. Eden Chuang comes back more committed than ever. A whole new infusion of Knights joins the fray as well - Carson Yiu and Jason Chan to name a couple and expect them to solidify this team’s efforts for the season. Not like at the end of last season when, in the playoffs, not a single guy decided to show up for a game, hanging them with not only a forfeit, but the ire of the League’s brass for having the gonads to go out and pull a stunt like that. They will have to earn their way back into the good graces of people as no one likes a team who forfeits. Their approach for this campaign already appears strong.
| THELONIUS DUNK: One of last season’s most improved teams appears ready to make another move ahead now having tasted a little bit of success. How Mike Choi motivates his guys to take it up a notch remains to be seen, but the UCLA alum who practices law now is a smart cookie. He’ll figure it out. And in case he can’t, we’ll provide a few hints. 1) Put the ball in Dave Wang’s hands. A lot. The Rookie of the Season averaged 15.8 ppg and gave TD a bona fide scoring guard while alleviating the burden of having 37-year old Walter Ho from having to run the point constantly. 2) Set Lee Free. John Lee established himself as a legitimate threat from all over the floor and is a near double double always waiting to happen. Now that they have a solid one, two punch, the rest of the pieces – getting Reza Zarnegar or Benny Suh more involved - need to be pushed into place. That part, we’ll leave to Choi.
| TRI-STATE SANDS OF TIME: Andre Liu does the impossible and adds another franchise into his ever-growing gang of guys that is the Tri-State Nation. This one appears to be a solid play with a line-up of DL vets who provide a good blend of age, experience, sprinkled with some youthful exuberance. Late 30’s guard Albert Oh appears ready to run, but the real fun begins with the unveiling of post man Vince Morales, a DL-Bay transplant who has arrived in the 212 to not only study fashion marketing, write columns for the website, but also to eat up opposing frontcourt players. He’s going to be the League’s, as well as Sands of Time’s, savior all at once!
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