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Nippon NT Explodes to Amazing First Win

No one believed it was possible. Not the coach, not the players, not the fans, not even foxy half naked cheerleaders. In the first game of the Season 19 Asia Tournament the downtrodden Nippon National Team, under new management and still getting to know each other, travelled to Manila, Philippines to play the host nation and #18 ranked Pilippinas National Team. Expecting to get destroyed by this perennial power house the team approached the match up more as a scrimmage and came in loose ready to give a low effort, learn a few things about each other and make the most of the coming loss. Well, it’s seems that the relaxed approach and the ease the players came into the game with, along with a masterful game plan from their new leader was more that their opponent was ready for. After 4 quarters of close action and amazing play from the Japanese Nationals, Nippon took the lead in the final minutes and pulled off one of the greatest upsets in Nippon NT history.

The effort was led by their Star center and long-time fan favorite, Yusuke Furusawa who was both top scorer (32) and top rebounder (16). Top assist man for the game was Takatoshi Tagawa and the best bench play came from Rikkio Egguchi

This win certainly will raise the fans expectations of the team and will also help them achieve their goal of advancing to the second round of the tournament. A win like this sure will add the pressure if it can’t be repeated.

Depth chart for this game was as follows:

Point Guard
$ - Takatoshi Tagawa
Rikkio Eguchi
Haruki Fujii

Shooting Guard
Hideki Ochi
Rikkio Eguchi
Masatomo Saiki

Small Forward
Tooro Oishi
Naoya Ueda
Masatomo Saiki

Power Forward
Yusuke Furusawa
$ - Mitsuo Shibukji
Satashi Hayakawa

Center
Hirofumi Sonoda
Satashi Hayakawa
$ - Mitsuo Shibukji

$ - Yuhei Suenami - was not in line-up do to poor game shape.



$ - Indicates players is currently for sale and looking for a good home.

Now come on wolph, change it to "approve"!

Looks like he heard you.....hahahahahahahaha!!! It says 100% now

Expecting to get destroyed by this perennial power house the team approached the match up more as a scrimmage and came in loose ready to give a low effort, learn a few things about each other and make the most of the coming loss.

After reading this article the coach responded, "My Jedi mind tricks are working on them, they are like butter in the palm of my hand."

I picked up Okita and Hojo thinking they might get some NT run.

But if they are not going to make you rotation, give me some time before you drop them off them team to sell them.

Ill make sure to sell them before this current NT season is over.

Neither of them are on the team for right now for the start of the season. Okita is probably the closest but has possibly 2-3 guys ahead of him. They are all really close with each other so it will really depends on their game shape at the point in time that I need to make a call-up for some help.

Agreed. That is incredibly shoddy to give the guy a "disapprove" vote. Now come on wolph, change it to "approve"!

Zing! I agree, come on Wolph!

Confession time: I had forgotten to vote so now he has 11 people that approve!

Great write up. +1

It is just like a real game, when Miami goes in against some weak team and thinks they can just take it easy and still win this is exactly what happens. Teams can't be complacent against us.

I was joking Wolph...

Week 2 Preview – Australia

Coming off the big upset of the Philippines, the morale of our team is extremely high. In an interview last night Naoya Ueda commented, “That last game was the most exciting game of my life. We can’t wait to get back on the floor and see what we can do." Recently Star PF Yusuke Furusawa could be heard saying, “Hey, if we can beat them, then why can’t we beat anyone, maybe even China.” Well, I guess that would include our next opponent, Australia.

This will be a big second test for the team. The Aussies are currently ranked 38th in the World. They handled their first opponent, Macau, with ease. Blowing them out by 33 with a big second half surge. In the last Asia tournament they finished second (behind Philippines) in their round 1 group at 5-1, and then finished 3rd in the second round at 3-2.

The game begins at 7:30pm tonight Japan time. Come root on the team and join in the chat room to discuss how things are going.