MASUM 0708 Semi vs UUM

MASUM 0708 Semi Finals

1 more step to return to the Finals. But first we had to take care of business and get through the Semi Finals.

Semi Finals was against UUM. Last year, UUM had intentionally lost the group match against UKM in order to avoid meeting us in the Quarter Finals (UKM ended up losing to us in the Quarters last year). We therefore had the pyschological advantage against UUM.

However, we had 1 of the worst starts in the competition. We started the game with a careless turnover (by Amirul) and a missed assignment (not sure whose) - both leading to easy lay ups, 3 rushed shots (2 by Phang and 1 by Chen Wee), defensive breakdown allowing open 3 point shot ... and suddenly we were down 8-2.

However, we were not unduly worried and had confidence that our starters would settle down. Sure enough, our starters settled down and dug in on defense. UUM started to have great difficulty scoring or even finding shot opportunities and committed several turnovers and shot clock violation. Meantime, Chuan carried us early with shots inside, outside (3 point) and from the free throw line. When the 2nd unit came in, they continued to play good tough defense. We felt we were in control though the score was close. At the end of the 1st quarter, we had gotten the lead (15-14). We would have led by more but players missed some easy, in-close shots (FG% = 27%) and missed 6 out of 12 FTs.

In the 2nd quarter, we continued to play good tough, aggressive defense and UUM continued to struggle to find scoring opportunities. However, on offense we continued to miss easy, in-close shots that kept bouncing out (several by Wei Cheng who normally makes these shots easily). Consequently, the score remained relatively close though we were clearly in control. At the half, we had opened a small 5 point lead (31-26).

We were still wary though as UITM had been "in control" during their quarter finals against UUM and led the whole game and even had a 11 point lead with 3 minues to go before UUM came storming back in the last 3 minutes with a 17-0 run with several 3 point shots, multiple foul shots and even a 4-point play, to win that game. We therefore new that UUM was too dangerous a team to let them stay close and reminded our players that we had o maintain our defensive and offensive focus in the 3rd and start to get some separation.

Our players responded and maintained the same defenssive intensity and focus, holding UUM to just 3 jump shots and 1 3-pointer on 31% shooting, 7 turnovers and a 14-7 advantage on rebounds. UUM continued to struggle just finding shooting opportunities. Everything was contested. But the difference was we finally found our offensive rhythm and those early easy shots finally started to fall. We shot a blistering 60%? That 3rd quarter, scoring 25 points with 20 of the poins coming from "in the paint"!

By the end of the 3rd quarter, we were firmly in control with a 18 point lead (57-38).

In the 4th we were clearly in control and maintained a comfortable 20 point lead through out the 1st 5 minutes of the 4th quarter, with our 2nd unit playing against their 1st unit. Poh Guan, leading the 2nd unit also found his offense, with a 3 pointer and several beautiful dribble penetration and score or assists.
At the customary 5 mintute mark (leading 66-45), we asked the 1st unit to sub-in.

As our 1st unit were reached the scorer's table to wait for sub-in opportunity, misfortune struck as Wei Cheng, going for a rebound, landed on a UUM player's foot and twisted his ankle badly - seconds before he (and the other 2nd units were about to be subbed-out.

Well, injuries like these are things we cannot control and usually occurs in the course of any competition. Championship teams have to be able to deal with such player injuries and other players have to step up.

For this game, the 2nd unit's rotation was done anyway. Not wanting to risk further injury, the 1st unit (who subbed in) was instructed to slow the game down and use up the shot clock even though there were still 5 minutes to go.

Phang who had been playing PG for us since the 2nd quarter and playing the role of facilitator found himself with the ball often with the shot clock winding down and having to take "desperation" shots. Amazingly, Phang started hitting shot after shot (2 pointers and 3 pointers) with 1 or 0 seconds on the shot clock! This totally demoralized UUM and with 43 seconds left, Phang the last of his 3 point shot, again with 0 seconds left on the shot clock for a 74-49 lead.

UUM gave up and subbed out its starters and subbed in its bench players who had not played at all the whole game. Still UUM had to endure 1 more 3 point shot from Kok Way in the closing seconds.

FINAL SCORE : UM wins 77-49

Individually, Chen Wee (15p-15r) and Chuan (13p-12r) continued to have strong games with double-doubles. Phang too had a complete game with 12 pts, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. 8 of his 12 pts came in the last quarter during his flurry of last second shots. Poh Guan also stepped up his game with 10 pts and 6 assists. As usual Poh Guan was again both the assist leader and the turn-over "king" ... but this ime he only had 3 TOs for an acceptable 2:1 Assist:TO ratio.

Though a good victory, the happiness and excitement of succeeding in making it to the finals again (with an unbeaten record this time!) was tempered by the injury to Wei Cheng, who is a critical component of the 2nd unit. As usual, other players will just have to step up.

Next update : FINALS vs UPM

MASUM 0708 Quarter Finals v USM

UM was through to the Quarter Finals. We were matched up against USM (whom we beat last year in the Semi Finals).

USM was again coached by Dr. Teng and had the same core players returning from the previous year. The main players were their PG (No. 11) and their SG (No. 9) - both of whom (normally) shoots the ball extremely well from the 3 point line.

As per last year, our goals were to make the 3 point line "disappear" for them by playing our aggressive half court man defense, stepping out on all on ball screens and boxing out to ensure that we only allow 1 shot to them each possession.

Additionally, this year, we were even more confident in our "5-in-5-out" rotation and were confident that USM did not have to personnel nor fitness / stamina to stay with us for a 40 minute game.

USM played hard and obviously wanted very badly to get their revenge for last year's loss. Even in the 1st half, we largely achieved our goals of making the 3 point line disappear (USM was 1-9 from 3 point line) and we gave up only 5 offensive rebounds whilst pulling down 19 defensive rebounds. However, USM played extremely well in the 1st half, shooting a blistering 57% from 2 point in the 1st quarter and getting 8 fast break points to lead by 2 after one quarter (18-16).

Though we managed to tighten up our defense further in the 2nd half (USM shot only 21% in the 2nd half), we committed fouls that sent them to the free throw line time and again where they were 6-10. Consequently, at the half, we were only up by 2 (32-30).

However, none of us were worried as USM's 30 points were hard fought points and they had to play really hard to get those 30 points. Whereas UM's 32 points were mostly points we got from execution of our half-court offenses. USM's main players had also played the entire half whereas both our 1st and 2nd units had rotated in and out as per usual and were both very fresh.

In the 3rd we continued to maintain our defensive pressure (USM shot only 25% in the 3rd quarter) and USM continued to get more and more exhausted (USM players were bending over or even squatting down exhausted at every opportunity / game stoppage). However, we failed to capitalise when USM fouled us and we were a dismal 0-6 from the free throw line. Consequently, the score was still relatively close after 3 quarters (49-43), though we were clearly in control of the game.

We told our players that we just had to maintain our focus on our goals and USM would not be able to stay with us in the 4th. We started our 2nd unit in that 4th quarter and sure enough, USM could no longer stay with us. We pulled out to a double digit lead whilst USM was getting more and more tired playing against our 2nd unit. At the customary 5 minute mark, we substituted our 2nd unit out and brought our (fresh) 1st unit in to finish off the game. When USM saw our 1st unit being sub-in, they collectively dropped their shoulders and look defeated. We knew the game was ours and we blew the game open. In that 4th quarter, we had 12 fast break points, 20 points in the paint, shot 53% from 2 point and 50% from 3 point whilst holding USM to 19% shooting, zero fast break points and only 4 points in the paint - all signs of a tired opponent.

For the game we also had an overwhelming advantage on the boards (66-34) and held USM to 4-26 (15.4%) shooting from the 3 point line.

FINAL SCORE : UM wins 74-55.

Chuan had continued his strong play from the previous game and had 17 points and 10 rebounds for his second straight double-double, whilst shooting a blistering 78% from 2 point and 50% from 3 point!!. Chen Wee also bounced back from his previous "average" game, with a double-double of his own (13 points 18 rebounds). Phang also gave us 14 important points, many he scored by creating his own offense at critical times. As last year, Phang also shut down USM's PG and stole the ball from him several times.

Both Chee Ching and Fai also contributed 8 points each. However, although Chee Ching also shot a high percentage (67%), Fai shot 100% (4/4), mostly from the side and off the board, further solidifying his "board-king" title.

Poh Guan (PG) continued to be our Assist Leader (7) but also our turnover leader (6). However, Poh Guan remained our "X-factor" as he plays on both the 1st and 2nd unit and was a critical factor in the success of our 2nd unit, enabling us to rotate 5-in-5-out.

Whilst the score was close through most of the 1st 3 quarters, there was never any doubt that, in this game, UM was the better team and UM won the game in dominant manner. Well done, UM!

Next update : Semi Finals vs UUM

MASUM 0708 Game #2 v UMS

Our 2nd game was against the home team UMS.

Our players were extremely confident for this game. Before this game we had the opportunity to watch UMS play UIAM. UIAM started the same aggressive 3-quarter court pressure man defense and UMS really struggled. It allowed UIAM to jump out to a big lead and despite not being able to maintain that presssure throughout the game, UIAM managed to protect that lead.

More importantly for UM, as UM watched the UIAM v UMS game they realised that UIAM was actually a very strong team ... which meant we were even stronger as we handled UIAM well!

With this confidence we took on UMS and handled them easily. We led throughout and won the 1st 3 quarters by big margins. We had a huge advantage on rebounds (69-36) with 32 offensive rebounds. We also held them to 26% FG and had 37 defensive rebounds whilst only giving up 10 offenssive rebounds We were really committed to boxing out. We led 21-8 after 1 quarter,43-19 by half time and 62-29 after 3 quarters.

FINAL SCORE : UM win 70-43

Chuan bounced back from his sub-par game 1 with 18 pts 12 rebounds for a double double. Chen Wee anly had an average (by his std) game with 5 pts and12 rebounds. Fai also had a good game, aggressive on offense with 9 points (mostly off board shots ... earning him the title "board-king") and 5 rebounds. The surprise came this time from Jensen who had 13 pts 5 rebounds 5 steals and 3 assists for a solid overall game.

Overall another fantastic team effort with our patented 5 in 5 out rotation.

With the win, UM became Group A champion.

Next update : Quarter Finals vs USM

MASUM 0708 - Game #1 UIAM

This is the 2nd installment of my UM MASUM 0708 report.

Our opening game was against UIAM. It was also the 1st game of our group which meant neither team had seen the other play yet.

UIAM is always unpredictable in terms of their strength due to their high numberof international students.

They had a really good center, not very big sized, but could really jump, with incredible "hang time", great rebounding and very steady / good shooting (played last year too).

They also had a few other African players, really muscular & tall and one middle eastern player who looked like Jason Kapono (fortunately he didn't play anywhere near to Jason Kapono's abilities!). They also had an African PG (the center's brother), short, good court sense. really good at finding / passing to his brother but very poor outside shooting.

At the start of the game they surprised us with a very aggressive 3 quarter court man-to-man defense.We had to try 3 different man offense - going from Set 1A, to Set 4 to Set 1B (blocker / mover) - in the 1st 5 minutes before we settled down on offense. During that time we had 9 turnovers and only scored 2 points to trail 2-6.

The 1st quarter became a low scoring defensive battle - a real challenge to our vaunted defense. Our defense rose to the challenge and held them scoreless the rest of the quarter.

We still had a tough time scoring (making only 2 more shots from the field) but UIAM could not maintain their defensive mental focus and started to commit fouls (6 fouls - sending our players to the foul line 4 times where we were 6 for 8). And that was the difference in the quarter. 1st quarter ended with us up 12-6.

From then on. UIAM did not have the fitness to maintain their defensive intensity (their starting 5 played extended minutes with 1 or 2 bench players playing short minutes only) though they still played man to man. Their defensive pressure was no longer there (allowing us to score 6 basket from the field) and continued to foul us (7 team fouls) allowing to score another 7 points from the FT line.

On the other hand we rotated our usual 5 in 5 out throughout the 1st half and maintained our defensive intensity. By half time we led by 15 points (31-16).

In the 3rd we told our players to expect UIAM to make a push (after they rested at half time) and that if we could just match UIAM in the 3rd, we would be able to pull away in the 4th.

We started our 2nd unit in that 3rd quarter and matched them point for point. After 3 quarters we still led by 13 points.

Sure enough in the 4th quarter UIAM could no longer stay with us and we blew the game open.

FINAL SCORE : UM win 63-37.

A team effort overall. Chuan had a poor game (4 points 3 rebounds). In the past whenever Chuan had a poor game offensively we would lose. But this year we not only won, we won in dominant manner thanks to our defense and other players stepping up.

Phang was top scorer with 13 points, many created by himself (crucial baskets at critical times). Chen Wee had a strong game with 11 points 14 rebounds for a double double. Most importantly Chen Wee played excellent defense against UIAM's center, blocking him out of rebounds and keeping his points limited. When Chen Wee went out, our 1st year 2nd unit center, Chee Ching continued excellent, aggressive defense against UIAM's center. He was so frustrated he punched Chee Ching in the mouth (and the referee didn't see the punch!) openning a cut on the inside of Chee Ching's mouth. Fortunately the injury was not too serious and Chee Ching did not have to miss any games.

But the surprise player was Kok Way, another 1st year player (shooting guard) who came off the bench to play with the 1st unit. He scored 11 points, mostly from medium / long range but with a high shooting percentage (57%).

After this 1st game, we had a 2 day rest before our next game against the home team, UMS.

Next game update : UM v UMS.

UM Centralized Training

MASUM 0708 - Report

First off, I apologize for the lack of updates on UM for the last 2 months. I have been tied up with work (travelling to Middle East, clearing work so I can go on leave for MASUM), tied up with UM basketball (centralized training, MASUM Itself) and now clearing all the backlog accumulated over the 2 weeks I was on leave during MASUM.

During MASUM I had sent daily sms updates to as many Ex-UM players as I could. My sms list was 40 persons long! If I have missed any Ex-UM player from my sms list please forgive me ... It was unintentional ... And please add a comment to this blog entry that you were left out and I will add you to my sms list.

What follows now is the 1st installment of the long overdue MASUM 0708 report.

Over the course of the next 2 weeks I hope to be able to post in stages, my report on MASUM 0708, starting with :

CENTRALIZED TRAINING

For the first time, I am no longer in legal practice (where I had 60 days annual leave). Iam now an in-house legal adviser with WCT Berhad and couldn't take leave for centralized training (having to reserve my leave for MASUM itself). I am therefore extremely thankful and grateful and UM is extremely fortunate that Coach Tan Chun Pin was able to assist by conducting the morning practice sessions and I conducted (often together with Coach Pin) the night sessions.

Coach Pin has already been assisting me for more than 2 years now and is fully capable of running practices.

This year we were also fortunate that none of the players had industrial training during that time.

We managed to achieve many of our goals for centralized training including setting our goal (Champs), rediscovering our defensive identity / intensity, finding our offensive identity, peaking our fitness, settling our game rotation.

We had 3 friendly matches (lost the 1st one badly) but saw our performance improve from game to game.

There were some things which we didn't manage to cover or cover as much as the coaching staff had hoped to - these included having both 1st and 2nd units (totally) familiar with each others "special sets" (we had a few sets there were exclusive to each unit - i.e. run by one unit, but not the other) and practicing different players in each unit. We had settled in to which 5 players were in each unit but didn't have time to practice different combinations of players in each unit (and this would later come back and "bite" us!).

Overall, we were extremely happy with the rediscovery of our high intensity, defensive identity, both units settling into their own "comfort zones" in terms of offensive style and pace (1st unit - steady and deliberate; 2nd unit super-fast and a bit helter-skelter) and the team settling into a comfortable rotation basis (players knew when who/which unit would be going in/coming out).

Next post on MASUM 0708 update : Game #1 vs UiAM

MASUM 0708 - Schedule

MASUM 2007/2008

This year's MASUM competition will be held at Kota Kinabalu, Sabah from 21st May 2008 to 28th May 2008.

Centralized training will begin 4th May 2008 and continue daily right up to 19th May 2008.

Both the boys and girls teams are scheduled to depart KLIA for KK on 20th May 2008.

Based on current / preliminary information, UM is in Group A together with UMS and UiAM. UMS is usually quite strong (or at least above average) whilst UiAM is always unpredictable. UM must prepare themselves fully and to our very best.

It is UM's study week, next week and the week after that (and for some, right up to the 1st or 2nd week of May) will be UM's final exams. We will continue to run our practice sessions but we understand that players may not be able to attend all practices. Nonetheless, the coaches will continue to be present and will train / practice with whichever player turns up.

Players first priority must ultimately be their studies. Hopefully, all players have and will plan their studies well and will be able to come for at least 1 or 2 sessions a week even during the exams, so as to keep and maintain their stamina and fitness at a reasonable level.

This is the final stretch of our preparations for MASUM. To the players, the coaches would say : "Keep pushing and working hard .. .both academically and basketball-wise!"

UCBL - Schedule

Latest news!

I've just been informed by the UCBL organizers that the Opening Ceremony this Sunday, 30/3/2008 has been postponed indefinitely as the Minister of Youth who was supposed to officiate it could not make it. The Manager's Meeting will still be held at 3rd Floor, Berjaya Complex (opposite Berjaya Times Square) at 9:30am, on Sunday 30/3/2008. UM players do not need to attend this meeting.

However, the competition games themselves are now planned to be held after MASUM!! Tentatively, around June.

That means we won't have any competition to make our final adjustments or test different unit combinations before MASUM. We will have to arrange for as many friendly matches as we can and will likely end up (like last year) still making adjustments into the 1st round of MASUM itself.

If any player or Ex-UM member is able to help arrange for (reasonable quality) friendly matches, please contact the Coaching Staff and/or Team Captain, Chen Wee. We have the use of the gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 9pm to 10:45pm and we can use either of these time slots for friendly matches..

MASUM - Schedule

Its official!

MASUM 2007/2008 will be held on 21-28 May 2008 at UMS, Sabah.

There should be the usual centralized training at UM before departing for UMS. I will post further details as they become available.

Meantime, SUKMUM for boys' basketball is starting. As soon as that is over, its time for UMBBT to get back to some serious and focused training.

Its time to defend our Championship!

Universiti Malaya Boys Basketball Team (UMBBT) Website

Purpose of this Blog

A website was previously set up under tripod. However updating information on that website proved too time consuming.

It is hoped that by using a "blog" instead, information can be more easily and quickly updated so that information are current.