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Like the previous post – NCBL 2008 Preview? We have more!! A few more notable authors & pundits have thrown in their share of opinions & previews for the Remix NCBL 2008. Thanks guys!

Preview from Mr. Yasier (Guard/Forward, Swoosh)

On the sheet, offensively looks like Swoosh has a more complete & balanced roster.

They have post player, ball handler, slasher & shooter. But they still have a few weaknesses if you really study them. I’m not gonna reveal here of course. But they still have to prove that they can take it from the defending champ Pegasus which they have not done in quite some time. Pegasus is no doubt the best defensive team, and has the best offensive team play. Defensively you can’t beat one man & expect to score, you need to break down the team defense. The runner up defensive champ is Phantoms. Pegasus and Phantoms looks like the only team that has proper & effective offensive set plays, unlike other teams that only pass & drive & 1 on 1 etc.

Stallions have a very strong & highly rated roster, but they seem to be more heavy in the inside.

Who else besides Hilmi can really do damage from the outside? They may be very effective playing 1 on 1, but if playing against a tight zone D or double teams, can they really play team offense? This is a team with big talents, but yet have not proven that they can play together. Same goes to defense. Will there be help (in case of beaten defender) and team defense. The biggest question mark about this team is TEAMPLAY. If they can really do it without any training & in a short 3 months time, then 1 semifinal spot is booked.

As for Pegasus, the only question is, with a few new additions to the roster, can they play better than last season?

This year a lot of other teams are getting stronger. If they have reached their limit & can’t play better this year, they may face big obstacles in their journey to repeat their success. They stayed on top of the mountain for 2 consecutive years (Pegasus were champions in 2006 and 2007), and this have exposed themselves in terms of team play and strategies. All the ‘seasoned’ teams like Swoosh, Phantoms, Stallions and Flames kept on talking about beating the champs as their primary goal. Stallions even tried to keep their roster a secret to surprise the Pegasus in the first game, but in the end it proved to be unsuccessful.

This is my tips on my observation on the strength & weaknesses of teams. Teams that wish to beat them can get some tips from here.

1. Swoosh – can’t reveal.

2. Phantoms – to me the easiest one. Phantoms is like NO Hornets, P Suns, LA Lakers& C Cavaliers. If you can shut down CP, S Nash, Kobe & Lebron, for sure you will win. Who you need to shut down in Phantoms? Who else if not Rushdi. Full court press him every single time, make him tired, he’s a superb ball handler, but he’s not fast & do not have enough stamina to break you down full court. Offensively, they only have 1 – 2 shooters. 90% of their shots are 2 pointers & fast break. They are really good in slashing in and play organized & effective team set plays. So tighten the defense inside, then you’ll have higher chance to stop them.

3. Stallions – if they play their slow big centers, run fast break against them. Hilmi is a much improved shooter than last season. After the knee injury, he can’t play ball, so he build up his body & master his shooting. So you can’t let him shoot, nor let him drive, cause he can bump you and take the lay up, or dish it to the big centers. But i wonder can he play 100% now? Maybe he can’t drive that well yet. My advise is to double team him every single time. Cause he is the leader of the team (not paie, he is the coach / manager). The offense STARTS from Hilmi. If he can’t have the ball to run or start the offense, then the offense can be pretty messed up.

4. Pegasus – bring your A game, or else you have no chance. Almost all of their players can handle the ball & run. This makes fastbreak one of their strength. But they seem to be heavier on the inside. They don’t really have pure shooters. They are really good rebounding team offensively & defensively. Try to tighten the defense inside. They are very unselfish too. They play good team offense. Trained by their coach Sham. Defensively, looks like they only have 1 weakness. Try to shoot over their short Captain Jijun.

5. Flames – the most energetic & spirited team. Yet they still have no shooter. They depends on hustle plays, rebounds & second chance shots to beat you. They don’t really have effective big man. Average height is low. Yet don’t underestimate them. They beat Scorekeys after trailing more than 10 points last season. With a few addition this season, i believe they are one of the favourites.

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Review from "The Flash" Hilmi (Point Guard, Stalions), in response to Yasier’s comments

SWOOSH offense might be scary but I’m not impressed with their defense. So I think this is their weakness. They have added few PG and SG players, but I don’t think they can last the full 40 minutes of the game. Another thing to look at is their bench players, might be experienced but do they have the chemistry with the new players (yasier,ramesh,kader?,etc)? Will know this team better after their first game. PEGASUS is still the favourites I think, and a team to beat, nothing much to say about this team. If they can still play like the previous year they will advance to the Finals. In my opinion Pegasus is the number 1 team in this league.

If you ask me how to stop Swoosh, i would say find a good defensive player in your team, and deny Yasier from getting the ball, cause once he makes his first 2 or 3 shots, he will keep coming so the best is to stay close to him and let him drive and wait for help from the weak/strong side to come. How to stop a shooter with Yasier’s pedigree? Make him miss his first few shots and he should be off for that game. Never let them catch their rhythm. Guga aka superman is still not back but if he comes back, just do your best in defense -Don’t let him penetrate, make him take jump shots and 3-pointers instead. On top of that, pray that he is off that game.

Ramesh? No open shots for him, make him drive, and he will always look to pass. Not an excellent finisher. Kader? I don’t think he is playing but if he does, same way to defend a shooter, make them miss their first few shots..force them to take the shot they seldom take. Zhahril, the center? If he gets posession in the paint its hard to stop, not a good free throw shooter so foul him and make him earn from the line, be aggressive on him and play tough, he will get frustrated and tired very fast. For the rest of Swoosh, I’m not too sure how to play them cause don’t really know their game, hope you guys can figure out yourself.Good luck in defeating Swoosh..hahaha

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Mr. Azwan aka Hoopstar’s Comment on Swoosh’s Strength & Weakness, also in response to Yasier’s preview

First of all, I have only seen Swoosh’s lineup from this forum so the notable new faces this year would be Ramesh & the comeback of Razif into the lineup. Gone are one of their scorer from last season’s campaign, Cat (Farid Esham).

Strength : I have always observed this team, and from what I have seen for the past few years, they are at their best when they play small. It’s quite the opposite of what most people would say, but they have always flourished when they play small, running & gunning while Superman aka Abi aka Guganeswaran feeds their other guards with easy transition baskets. So watch out when they put in 3 guards (possibly Yasier, Ramesh & Razif with Trey coming as back-up) while they play Abi at the #4 position.

3pt shooting would be another of their strength. With the addition of Razif, Yasier & Ramesh while keeping Syed & Fendy (not to mention Abi as a shooter aswell), this team is loaded with long range bombers.

Having Amarjit, Zhahril & Shan inside would mean they would be able to at least secure their rebounds this season. Losing Shan & Zhahril in MBCUP last year really hurt their chances of winning against Pegasus in the championship game. If these 3 players can stay healthy and available throughout the tournament, their chances looks pretty good.

now, for the WEAKNESSES :

Team chemistry, while Yasier & Razif’s personal resume might look impressive, their lack of teamplay in past seasons has been well documented. So its important for swoosh to be able to integrate these two povital guards into their team system. These two guys will definately play heavy minutes for their team, so coach Salman has to get them to play on the same page.

Lack of mobility & endurance in their two big centers, this could be exploited by teams with versatile and more skilled centers & forwards. Swoosh centers slows down their game tremendously. Could prove deadly, especially if Superman is not playing.

The idea against swoosh is always to make them play more of a 1on1 game, take away their collective talents and make their team implode by their own. Their transition game has to be stopped (easier said than done), but if you crash the boards enough, and run against their big guys, hopefully you’ll end up being the winner.

But after all being said and done, their fate still relies on whether Abi is coming back for the games.

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Thanks again guys for your reviews and opinions!

The Remix Non-Chinese Basketball League, an annual event since 2006, has kicked off its 3rd edition on June 15, 2008 in Pusat Rekreasi JKKK Batu 11 in Balakong, Selangor.

The 2008 NCBL season marks a historic achievement for NCBL organisers, MVP Sports Promotion, as they have acquired Utusan Karya, Remix magazine, Molten, and XBaller as their official sponsors. The opening ceremony for the Remix NCBL 2008 was held at 9.30am and was officially launched by Datuk Hoh Hee Lee (President, Selanngor Amateur Basketball Association), our very own Encik (Abang) Khairul Anuar Jailani (Executive Director of MVP Sports Promotion and Chairman of Remix NCBL, and MABA Non-Chinese Development), and Zurzaila Bajuri (Head Manager, Business Operations and Development, Utusan Karya).

16 teams are participating in this year’s edition, the most so far in the tournament history. Teams are divided into 2 groups, with last year’s semi-finalists being split into separate groups. Below is the list of participating teams, broken down to their respective groups for the tournament:

Group A

Games will be held every Sunday in Pusat Rekreasi JKKK Batu 11, Cheras, Selangor from 15 June to 24 August 2008, from 10am to 4pm.

First and foremost, thank you for dropping by. Most of you may have dropped in here from the NCBasketball community in Circles99.com. Welcome!

For the others, Welcome too to the NCBasketball blog!

Now some may ask as to why this blog exists while a Circles99 community exists. Well – the reason is that the blog is made available to everyone, worldwide. Whereby Circles99 is made available through personal referrals, NCBasketball.net hopes to reach more audience through the search engines On top of that, we do know that Circles99.com cannot be reached especially when behind a proxy, therefore we do hope that this blog will lift that restriction.

Next, some may ask:

Why Non-Chinese Basketball Community? Malaysia is a multi-racial country, why single out based on ethnicity?

Well let me clear the air with one sentence (explanation will come in a bit):

Non-Chinese Basketball Community, Competitions, and Tournaments are meant as a TRAINING GROUND and PLAYER/TEAM DEVELOPMENT for non-Chinese players, to prepare them to compete openly on a State, National, and International level. 

Let’s be frank – Basketball is more popular with the Chinese community, and the best basketball players in Malaysia are Chinese. To bridge the gap, Non-Chinese Basketball community was formed with the aim of preparing Non-Chinese to compete openly with their Chinese peers.

Hope this clears the air!

Anyway, welcome again, and enjoy reading through the posts! We will have many authors for this blog, and their names (or nicknames), will be mentioned openly.