New Zealand win 2018 William Jones Cup for Women; India (0-5) finish last

The women's tournament 2018 William Jones Cup - an invitational basketball tournament held in New Taipei City, Taiwan over the past week - came to a conclusion on Sunday after five days of round-robin action among the six participating teams. With a perfect 5-0 record, New Zealand emerged as champions of this year's event. India's squad also participated, but lost every game with a blowout margin to finish at last place.

The William Jones Cup was held from July 25-29 and serve as a preparatory event for the larger challenge ahead: the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia next month. India faced all the participating teams in the round-robin tournament, including two squads from the home side Chinese Taipei, reigning women's Asia champions and last year's William Jones champions Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand.

New Zealand rounded up their perfect record with a win over their biggest likely challengers - Japan - in the final day of the tournament, 85-74. Ashleigh Karaitiana ended the tournament as NZ's leading scorer, averaging 22 points per game.

Team India were coached by former national player and referee Shiba Maggon and led by the squad's most-talented player as captain, Jeena Scaria. Other important pieces in the roster included experienced guard Raspreet Sidhu, Shireen Limaye, Anjana Prasannan Geetha, Stephy Nixon, and more.

India began their campaign in a trial by fire, against eventual winners New Zealand, who ran rampant en route to a 114-39 victory. Karaitiana single-handedly outscored Team India with 40 points in the win.

In Game 2, Japan used a balanced offence with six players scoring in double digits to beat India 94-38.

India lost again in their third game to South Korea (Eunsil Choi 22) 101-48.

India had a relatively better scoring performance in their fourth game against the first of two home teams, Taiwan A, but the hosts still won comfortably 102-54. Scaria led India with 17 points in the loss.

In their final game, India lost to the second host team, Taiwan B, 91-60. This was, technically, India's closest game, and Pushpa Senthil Kumar led the squad with 16 points. Wei Yu Chun (20) and Hsi-Yeh Liu (17) led the way for Taiwan.

The 5x5 basketball tournament at the 2018 Asian Games will be held from August 19 to September 1 in Jakarta, Indonesia. India have been drawn in Group X of the tournament along with Korea, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, and Kazakhstan.

Sim Bhullar - first person of Indian origin to play in the NBA - has signed with Taiwanese team Dacin Tigers

One and a half years ago, Canadian basketball player Sim Bhullar made history for the desi community worldwide as the Sacramento Kings gave him a chance to become the first player of Indian descent to play in the NBA. During his short, 10-day contract with the Kings (owned by India-born Vivek Ranadive), Bhullar played just three minutes in three games and scored one basket. But in his brief moment in the sun, the 7-foot-5 talent from New Mexico State University had done enough to scribble his name in the pantheon of Indian basketball players around the world.

Now, Bhullar, who last played his trade for his hometown NBA D-League squad Raptors 905, has taken a bold new career step, away from the spotlight of North America. Earlier this week, it was announced that Bhullar has signed with the Taiwanese basketball team Dacin Tigers, who are one of the strongest teams in Taiwan's top tier Super Basketball League (SBL). Bhullar will become the tallest player ever in the SBL.

Bhullar's decision to play in Taiwan may be financially motivated, suggested Blake Murphy on the Raptors Republic blog. The D-League salaries are low, and playing in Asia may give Bhullar more chance to earn and also become a centerpiece for the team. But the risk remains that this move may hurt his visibility and potential return to play in the NBDL or the NBA.

Apart from his extremely brief NBA stint, the big man had spent the rest of his two-year professional basketball career after leaving New Mexico State in the NBA D-League, playing with the Reno Bighorns and Raptors 905. Although he started slow, he showed considerable improvement for 905 in his last few months with the team, eventually finishing with averages of 9.6 ppg, 6.9 rpg, and 1.3 bpg at the end of the 2015-16 season.

The Dacin Tigers finished the 2015-16 SBL season at third place with a 18-12 record. They won their only SBL title in 2009.

Bhullar, the son of Punjabi immigrants to Canada, remains closely tied to his Indian roots, and took a high-profile trip back to India last year with the NBA to promote basketball in the country. He will become the first player of Indian-origin to play in the SBL.

William Jones Cup 2016: Taiwan visa error costs 2 Indian stars multiple games

After an 11-year gap, India's Men's national team's return to the prestigious William Jones Cup in Taiwan has been a bit of a mixed bag so far. India named their strongest-possible team out of the available pool, but still started the tournament with three consecutive losses. But the 0-3 record looks harsher than it should: India's first loss to California State University was to a miracle three pointer with 20 seconds left in the game and their third loss to Taipei Blue happened in overtime after a neck-to-neck contest. Even without a single win, India have announced their arrival as one of the most improved teams in the continent and a force to be reckoned with at next month's FIBA Asia Challenge.

Alas, India's close call losses early in this tournament now come burdened with an unfortunate - and frankly ridiculous - asterisk. On Monday, The Times of India reported that two of India's crucial players - captain Amrit Pal Singh and swingman Basil Philip - failed to fly to Taiwan with the rest of the team on Friday because of a visa blunder by the Embassy of Taiwan. TOI's Payal Dhawani reported that the Taiwan Embassy swapped the photographs of Amrit Pal and Philip in their visas. The Basketball Federation of India (BFI) only learnt of this gaffe on Friday evening, hours before the flight to Taiwan.

Without their captain and defensive stalwart Amrit Pal, and without the scoring ability of Philip off the bench, India have still played well behind the talents of Amjyot Singh, Vishesh Bhriguvanshi, and TJ Sahi, but the team didn't have enough juice to close out some of the close games. Amrit Pal and Philip are expected to miss one more game on Tuesday against Korea and will hopefully rejoin the squad after their visa troubles have been sorted for Game 5 on Wednesday against Egypt.

Amrit Pal spoke of his distress to The Times of India on Monday, while BFI's Secretary-General Chander Mukhi Sharma had stronger words to add, alleging that Taiwan purposefully tried to hold back Indian stars from making it to the William Jones Cup. Via The Times of India:

Photo Courtesy: Ekalavyas.com

A distressed Amritpal told TOI, "I was going to play in my first William Jones Cup and was very excited. Now, I am really disheartened that due to negligence of the embassy, I could not reach Taiwan. The entire team is in Taiwan except for me and Basil."
"Since (Saturday) morning, the federation is trying to get the visa issue resolved."

Meanwhile, the BFI suspects it to be a deliberate act on the part of Taiwan embassy since both Amritpal and Basil were strong players of the Indian team. Talking to TOI, Chander Mukhi Sharma, the secretary general of BFI, said, "Due to the fault of Taiwan embassy two of our important players Amritpal Singh and Basil Philip could not go for the William Jones Cup in Taipei. The federation will certainly file a formal complaint to Fiba on this."
Sharma further alleged, "This could also be a deliberate act to make our team weaker. I will get the documents on Monday. After discussing this with the federation a plaint will be lodged against the embassy."

Sharma has made a strong allegation, and it will be interesting to hear FIBA's reaction to BFI's complaint about this error. Whether it was a 'deliberate act' or not, the Embassy of Taiwan has clearly caused Team India unnecessary troubles, and may have even cost us a win or two.

UPDATE: Taiwan diplomat rejects India's accusations, blames travel agency.

Responding to accusations made by BFI's Secretary-General Chander Mukhi Sharma, Taiwanese diplomat in New Delhi Tien Chung-Kwang told China Post on Tuesday that Amrit Pal Singh and Basil Philip's mix-up was caused by the local travel agency that the BFI used, and not the Embassy of Taiwan.

Via China Post:

Tien Chung-kwang said the travel agency used by India's national basketball team to arrange the trip used the wrong pictures of two players in their visa applications, leading to the problems.

According to the diplomat, the travel agency sent information on all of the players headed to Taiwan to his office on July 20 to process visas, and their visas were issued the following day.
But the travel agency realized afterwards that it had switched the photos of Singh and Philip on their original applications, and quickly sent revised files for the two players to the office just before it closed on July 22, Tien said.
The new visas could not be processed in time to allow the players to catch a flight to Taiwan that night, leading them to miss India's opening game in the Jones Cup on July 23.

The William Jones Cup is supposed to be a crucial preparatory tournament ahead of the bigger FIBA Asia tournaments. It's a pity that, while India has performed well, they haven't been rewarded with the morale-boosting victories that they could have clinched with Amrit Pal and Philip. Hopefully, the two players will rejoin the squad safely and will be ready for tomorrow's game. India have four more matches at William Jones over the next five days, and a big victory or two will considerably raise the team's confidence level for the FIBA Asia Challenge next month.

India's Women's team finish 4th at William Jones Cup; Cathay Life win Gold

India's Senior Women's basketball team returned from the 34th William Jones Cup Basketball Tournament from July 7-11, 2012 in Miaoli County, Taiwan with a 2-3 record to finish at fourth place out of six teams. India lost their first three games to Cathay Life, Chunghua Telecom, and Japan, before winning their last two versus Chapman University and Malaysia.

Cathay Life, a Taiwan-based club, won the tournament with a perfect 5-0 record.

The William Jones Cup is an invitational basketball championship held annually in Taiwan. This year's tournament was held at the Miaoli Dome Gymnasium in Miaoli County. The Men's tournament follows the Women's championship, but India's Men's team will not be taking part.

India started the tournament with their first game versus Japan - it was an 11 point loss for India, but even in defeat, they showed potential of the team's talent. India's superstar Geethu Anna Jose had a monster game with 34 points and 22 rebounds, but it wasn't enough to prevent a 86-75 loss. Jose was again on fire against Taiwanese club Chunghua Telecom as she put in 27 points and 15 rebounds in a 93-75 loss. Jose's teammate from Kerala - young star Jeena PS - dropped 24 points and 10 rebounds in the loss. India stood no chance in the next game versus Cathay Life which resulted in a 96-53 win for the eventual champions.

India regrouped in their fourth game against Chapman University from USA as they headed to a blowout 111-67 victory. Jose had 17 points and 15 rebounds to head a balanced attack for India's win. In their final game versus Malaysia, Jose was again the star with 22 points and 15 rebounds to lead India to a 75-62 win. Akanksha Singh added 17 points and 8 rebounds in the game.

Jose was India's undisputed superstar, leading with 22.8 ppg and 15 rpg through the course of the tournament. Jeena PS was India's second-highest scorer, pouring in 11.3 points per game.

Final Rankings:

• 1. Cathay Life 5-0
• 2. Chunghua Telecom 4-1
• 3. Japan 3-2
• 4. India 2-3
• 5. Malaysia 1-4
• 6. Chapman University 0-5

India were led by Head Coach C. Thinakaran and Assistant Coach Prem Kumar.

BFI releases roster for 34th William Jones Cup for Women

The Basketball Federation of India (BFI) has released the roster of India's Senior Women's team for the 34th William Jones Cup invitational basketball tournament, set to be held at the Miaoli Dome Gymnasium in Miaoli County, Taiwan from July 7-11.

India's Women's squad returned with a 1-3 record from the 2011 William Jones Cup, while the hosts Taiwan won the tournament on home soil.

Indian eves will be led by Head Coach C. Thinakaran from Tamil Nadu. The squad features nine players from the National championship winning Indian Railways squad.

India's Women's Team for 2012 William Jones Cup

• Akanksha Singh (Delhi)
• Geethu Anna Jose (Indian Railways)
• Anitha Paul Durai (Indian Railways)
• Anju Lakra (Indian Railways)
• S. Kokila (Indian Railways)
• Smruthi Radhakrishnan (Indian Railways)
• Kiranjit Kaur (Indian Railways)
• Apoorva Murlinath (Indian Railways)
• Kavita (Indian Railways)
• Aruna Kindo (Indian Railways)
• Jeena PS (Kerala)
• Pratima Singh (Delhi)
• Head Coach: C. Thinakaran (Tamil Nadu)
• Assistant Coach: Prem Kumar (Kerala)

LeBron James to sell Donuts in India

Dunkin’ Brands, the parent company which owns ‘Dunkin Donuts’ and ‘Baskin-Robbins’ have signed on Miami Heat forward LeBron James to a multiyear deal as a brand ambassador to support the company’s growth in India, China, Taiwan, and South Korea.

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Li-N-A: Jeremy Lin busts the myth of basketball genes

Jeremy Lin is not the first Asian-origin person to dominate on a basketball court. Asians of all backgrounds have been breaking ankles, hitting threes, dunking and shutting their opponents down, and they’ve been doing it in playgrounds, in sweaty gyms, in schools, colleges, and in professional leagues around the world. Lin isn’t even the first Asian to be an NBA star: a certain 7 foot 6 behemoth by the name of Yao Ming would like to take credit for that. Many others from China or Japan or Iran have had their brief stints at the highest level of the game.

Click here to read full article

Taiwan Women win William Jones Cup; India return with a 1-3 record

Hosts Taiwan had no trouble dominating the home court at the Taipei Gymnasium between July 31-August 4, as they posted a perfect 4-0 record to top the five-team table and win the William Jones Cup. With the FIBA Asia Championship for Women only a few weeks away, this tournament served as a good warm-up for the participating teams, including the Indian Women's contingent who played their first competitive international games under new head coach Pete Gaudet.

India may have returned with just one win out of four, but their performance in that single win against the Korea Samsung side, coupled with a few stretches of good basketball against tough opponents in the other games, may have left Coach Gaudet with signs of optimism for the team's future.

India played their first game of the tournament against Taiwan World University Games (WUG) side. The game immediately became a showcase of the skills of India's Center Geethu Anna Jose, who continued to cement her position as one of the best players in all of Asia. While India started the game confidently, and trailed by just 1 in the first period, Taiwan WUG put the clamps down defensively on India, in the second, outscoring them 18-6 in the second quarter to hold on to a 35-22 half-time lead. The game became looser in the second half as both sides found the basket easily.

Trailing by 17 at the end of the third period, India made a brave comeback in the fourth quarter, in which Jose scored 13 points, outscoring Taiwan WUG all by herself. It still wouldn’t be enough as Taiwan WUG survived to win 71-64 in the end.

Taiwan WUG were led by the duo of Xu Qianhui (17) and Zhen Huang (16). Geethu Anna Jose had a big game for India in a losing effort, scoring 34 points and grabbing 18 rebounds.

In their second game, India faced hosts Taiwan, who had little problem brushing past India for a 45 point victory behind strong performances by Liu Jun (19 points) and Jiang Fengjun (16). Taiwan started strong, holding on to an eight-point advantage at the end of the first quarter, after which the game continued to slip away from India's hands. India trailed by 19 at the end of the half, and a confident Taiwan turned on their defensive screws to limit India to just 19 points in the second half.

For India, Jose was once again the best player, leading her side with 17 points.

After losing their first two games, India faced Korea Samsung on Tuesday. A weak first quarter, in which India only managed to score 9 points, didn't help in their bid to overturn their losing streak, and India found themselves trailing 32-24 at halftime.

But it was an inspired third quarter, in which India outscored their opponents 24-9, that proved to be the difference in the game. Hot shooting Prashanti Singh (16 points) and Anitha (24) led the way for India, overturning the score to India's advantage. Korea's fourth quarter comeback ended short, and India survived for a four-point victory.

The final game was against Japan: After India scored the first few baskets of the game, Japan took over the game completely, scoring quickly and with ease, and headed to a 31-16 first quarter lead, which was stretched to 57-26 by the end of the first half. Japan played good unselfish basketball, as five of their players scored in double digits.

India's performance, like the previous game, improved in the second half of the game, and in the fourth quarter, India shot well from the three-point line to stay neck-to-neck with Japan. But the damage had already been done, and Japan headed towards a 98-62 win.

Geethu Anna Jose led India with 16 points.

Final Standings

1. Taiwan 4-0

2. Japan 3-1

3. Taiwan WUG 2-2

4. India 1-3

5. Korea Samsung 0-4

Of course, there is still a lot of work to be done by Gaudet's side: the side will immediately return to camp in Delhi, as they now have only a little more than two weeks before the big challenge: the 24th FIBA Asia Championship for Women at Omura & Nagasaki in Japan from August 21-28th. In addition to the 12 players who went for the William Jones Cup, stand-in players Asha Hegde and Sonika will also join them for the camp.

India have been placed in a group with China, Korea, Japan, Chinese Taipei, and Lebanon in 'Level 1' of the FIBA Women's ABC.

India Women’s Squad for 2011 William Jones Basketball Tournament in Chinese Taipei

The roster of 12 women who will represent India at The 33rd William Jones International Basketball Tournament, which will be held in Chinese Taipei, has been released by Women’s coach Pete Gaudet and the Basketball Federation of India (BFI). The Women’s tournament, in which India is participating, will be held at the Taipei Gymnasium from July 31 – August 4.

Gaudet, who has been in training with the women’s probables at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in New Delhi for the past month will get a chance to see his team play their first competitive games under him at this international competition.

Indian team for William Jones Basketball Tournament

Prashanti Singh

Geethu Anna Jose

P. Anitha

Akanksha Singh

Raspreet Sidhu

M. Pushpa

Shireen Limaye

S. Kokila

Harjeet Kaur

Bharti Netam

Smruthi RK

Kruthika Lakshman

Head Coach: Pete Gaudet

Sonika Ohlyan and Asha Hegde have been selected as stand-by.

The William Jones Cup is an international basketball tournament held annually in Taipei, Taiwan. It was named after Renato William Jones, a basketball promoter and one of the founders of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA).

India will play in the round-robin tournament with the four other women’s teams who have confirmed participation in this year’s tournament: Japan, China, Korea, and Taiwan World University Games (WUG) team.

Schedule

July 31
16:00 Taiwan WUG-India
18:00 Opening ceremony
18:30 China-Japan

Aug. 1
17:00 Korea-Taiwan WUG
19:00 India-China

Aug. 2
17:00 Taiwan WUG-Japan
19:00 Korea-India

Aug. 3
17:00 Japan-Korea
19:00 China-Taiwan WUG

Aug. 4
17:00 India-Japan
19:00 Korea-China
21:00 Closing ceremony

Indian Senior Women to take part in William Jones Basketball Tournament in Chinese Taipei

A 17-women team of Senior Indian basketball players have been chosen as probables for The 33rd William Jones International Basketball Tournament, which will be held from July 31-August 4 in Chinese Taipei. The women’s tournament will be held at the Taipei Gymnasium in Taipei City.

A selection committee constituted by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) has chosen a short-list of 17 players after observing their performance at the coaching camp at the KD Jadhav Stadium in New Delhi. The final team consisting of 12 players will be announced one week before the tournament begins.

Senior Women probables for 33rd William Jones Basketball Tournament:

Geethu Anna Jose
M. Pushpa
Anitha Pau Durai
Smruthi RK
Bharti Netam
Prashanti Singh
Harjeet Kaur
Akanksha Singh
Raspreet Sidhu
Asha Hegde
Aruna Kindo
Kruthika Laksman
S. Kokila
Sneha Rajguru
Shireen Limaye
Sonika
Amruta Bhuskute

The William Jones Cup is an international basketball tournament held annually in Taipei, Taiwan. It was named after Renato William Jones, a basketball promoter and one of the founders of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA).

Other women’s team who have confirmed their participation in the women’s event this year are Japan National Team, Chinese Taipei National Team, Samsung Women’s Team, and Chinese Taipei University National Team.

This will be the first international action for the Indian National Basketball Team under new American head coach, Pete Gaudet. The tournament will also serve as preparation for the 24th FIBA Asia Championship for Women, to be held in Omura/Nagasaki, Japan, from 21-28 August.

Dwight Howard coming to India!

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Brace yourself, fellow Hoopistanis... the NBA is about to make a BIG presence (in every sense of the word) in India - news has leaked that none other than Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic will be landing in our shores in 10 days.

Howard will be one of the biggest stars to ever come to India - the Magic player is the reigning two-time Defensive Player of the Year, has been the league's leading rebounder for the past three seasons, is a four-time all star, three-time member of the All-NBA First team, is a Slam Dunk Champion from 2008, and is the self-proclaimed new Superman (although a certain Shaq may have something to say about that!)

This is exciting news for basketball fans in India, as the NBA continues its grand plan to popularise the sport in the country. A big player was promised... and a big player will be delivered... In the shape of the 6 foot 11 'Minotaur', the best Center in the league!

The NBA in India is currently busy with implementing the Bangalore and Ludhiana Mahindra-NBA Challenge programmes - a surprisingly positive response has been seen from hoopsters from both these cities, and also from the Mumbai league that was held a couple of months ago.

Howard (24), was the first pick by the Orlando Magic in the 2004 draft - he joined the NBA straight after high school from the Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy. Ever since, he has been one of the league's most dominant players - grabbing rebounds, swatting shots, donning on the 'Superman' cape for the Slam Dunk competitions, and collecting double-doubles like spare change. He has led the Magic to three straight division titles and one conference title, when the Magic went to the NBA Finals in 2009 (only to lose 4-1 to the Lakers).

Howard is traveling around the world this off-season - he has been to China and Taiwan in the past few weeks, conducting clinics, playing pickup basketball and judging dunk contests as a part of promotional tours for the NBA, Amway and Adidas. He heads to Senegal next, and then to India. He will also follow Amar'e Stoudemire's footsteps into Israel this offseason.

The visit brings back memory of Kevin Garnett's adidas-promotion visit in 2006, when he was mobbed by crazed fans everywhere he went (including by yours truly at the Sanksriti School in Delhi!).

Come on over, D12. India is waiting with open arms. Someone find a large pagri to fit his head.

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