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National Team Press Release


Japan NT Starts 2nd Round Off With Blowout Victory

In the first game of second round our boys overcame a 3 point halftime deficit to Prathet Thai by outscoring their opponent by 31 points in the second half to a blowout 112-84 victory. With this win the team is now 5-2 in competitive games this season. Over the course of the season the team has risen from their initial 73rd ranking to now being 49th in the world. Five wins is also the most wins since the team went 6-2 in season 14, coached by Wolph. Prior to that you have to go back to season 11 when they were 7-3.

Thailand is by far the easiest opponent we will have in round 2. From here it gets much more challenging. Next up is 54th ranked New Zealand. At best we are even strength with them but in reality they look to have better players and more depth. So, I’ll have to work some magic with the team to try to get a win. Luckily, it looks like we should be getting Ochi back to good form and can put him back in the starting line-up. That will be a big help.

Once again Furusawa led the way for the team against Prathet Thai with 23 points and 11 rebounds. Top assists went to Tagawa with 7, and Eguchi contributed 3 steals on the defensive side. Overall we out shot them 53% to 41% and out rebounded them by 14.

Here’s the lineup I used for this game:

Point Guard
Tagawa
Hara
Fujii

Shooting Guard
Eguchi
Ochi
Hara

Small Forward
Oishi
Suenami
Ueda

Power Forward
Furusawa
Shibukji

Center
Sonoda
Shibukji

Injured
Hayakawa
Kouzuki

Five wins is also the most wins since the team went 6-2 in season 14, coached by Wolph. Prior to that you have to go back to season 11 when they were 7-3.

Wasn't season 14 the consolation cup? The consolation cup is a bit like the Nippon Cup...all about the luck of the draw. A good job for sure but the WORLD CUP Q's are a different story...

Great work to win by 30 with less effort. As usual Furusawa was the star, but Tagawa was also great and I must comment on my guy Sonoda who slaughtered their $127k C keeping him to just 2/11 shpooting and 6 rebounds. I notice that he is now retired Pornchai Junsit (6616095). That was poor work by Thailand, not organising someone to bid on him and keep him alive. Losing their starting C, wow that must hurt.

Swoosh is selling Chihiro Okita (6927944). He looks great, nice defence and JR. Why isn't he on the NT?

Okita is a nice player but he isn't on the team mainly because of the quality of guard depth that we have. The guys on the team are just a little bit better.

BTW, I just noticed that Eguchi is up for sale again.

Another NT prospect for sale is Yuya Takayama (18297154). He could be good for me as Kaname Kouzuki has probably only 1 more season of elite play before he starts to decline (I will try to get a CE trainer just for him next season). Will anyone be upset with me if I never train his primaries. Again he may be capped and he has to fall into line behind those that are a higher priority like Kawagichi and the Shinkansen. But when I do some more 1 on 1 training next season he can certainly have some of that to improve those really bad secondaries.

So basically will anyone mind if I do decide to buy him that he wont get trained much and not at all in primaries. If anyone else thinks they can get him to NT standard then feel free.

Well that is an amazing plan and I would be very keen to do it, if he was my top priority. But he wont be, he will be a distant 3rd at best or maybe even 4th or worse depending on who I draft this season. I can give him 1 on 1 when I do it but that is probably it. I will still consider him and may pick him up, although this is not the time of season to get bargains and I really don't need a 3rd big man at the same sort of standard as Kaname Kouzuki and Hirofumi Sonoda. Hopefull someone willing to train his secondaries will get him.