UM Practice

Next Practice is as follows:-

Day : Tuesday
Date : 11th March 2008
Time : 9pm-10:45pm
Venue : Gym 1, 1st College, UM

IMPORTANT : Please be at Gym 1 by 8:30pm - warm up off the court/outside the gym - and be ready to start as soon as the girls' team finish their practice.

UM Practice

Please note there is no practice tomorrow Thursday night for this week as Gym 1 is being used for a sepak takraw competition.

UM's next practice is:

Sunday morning 9 March 2008, 7:45-10:00 am @12th College.

Ex-UM Practice

For tonight's practice, lets try a new venue/court. There is a public, lighted basketball court near Yuk Chai Primary School.

The location map can be downloaded from here.

Look for the link that says "(Near) Yuk Chai Basketball Court" under "Practice Facilities".

UM players who are free, do join us.

Puchong Open 2008 - Schedule

Yesterday, I have paid the registration fees for Puchong Open 2008 as well as submitted the jersey numbers and sizes.

Puchong Open 2008 is tentatively scheduled to start on the weekend of 22nd/23rd March 2008.

I will try to arrange for some "social basketball/light practice" for Ex-UM on Wednesday nights.

Puchong Open 2008 - Roster

Ex-UM will be taking part in Puchong Open 2008.

The competition is only open to non-students (as such UM is not able to take part) and will be played in league format, over a period of 3 months (with 1 or 2 games per week only), starting this month (after the general elections).

Ex-UM players (jersey no. - name) who have signed up for this competition are as follows:-

4 - Bik Yih
5 - Ben
6 - KC Yu
7 - Leong
8 - Juin Haur
9 - Kim Koh
10 - Pin
11 - Sem
12 - Loke Yew
13 - Ming Lip
14 - Alfred
15 - Haw Keat

We will try to arrange for some light (!) practices/social basketball on Wednesday nights (venue to be confirmed).

Next Practice

Practices for the month of March 2008 are as follows:

Tuesday nights, 9-11pm @ Gym 1
Thursday nights, 9-11pm @ Gym 1
Sunday mornings, 7:45-10am @ 12th College (mainly on shooting)

Next upcoming practice is therefore this Tuesday, 4th March 2008, 9-11pm @ Gym 1.

As the gym sessions are short, players are requested to arrive early (8:30pm latest) and to warm up off the court/outside the gym and be ready to start immediately at 9pm sharp.

Next Practice

Next practice is this Sunday, 2nd March 2008, 7:45am @ 12th College.

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!

Happy Chinese New Year

To All UM and Ex-UM basketball team members,

Happy Chinese New Year and Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

Hope this new year of the Rat will bring Joy, Happiness, Love, Good Health, Success, Wealth and Prospertiy to all of you!

Si Mou and I are having a simple dinner for all UM and Ex-UM members this Saturday, 16 February, around 7:30pm, at our house in Damansara Jaya to celebrate the Chinese New Year. I've tried to send sms-es to as many of you as I can. If I missed you, please forgive me but please consider yourself invited. It would help if you can send me an sms or email (lykhor@pc.jaring.my) to inform me you are coming and how many you are bringing along so we can make sure there is enough food!!

Click here to download a location map to my house.

See you this Saturday!

Regards,
Coach

Carlsberg Open 2008 - Game Results

UM Round #2 Results

UM's campaign in Carlsberg Open 2008 is now at and end. Whilst UM did well to advance into the 2nd round, the much higher standard of teams in the 2nd round really showed up and highlighted our team's weaknesses and lack of practice.

UM lost all 3 games played in the 2nd round, losing to Tham Training, YSL and Carlsberg teams.

The games highlighted our weaknesses this year in the following areas:-

1. Lack of commitment;
2. Unacceptably high turnovers;
   
3. Poor fast break execution - both primary and secondary
   
4. Poor man-to-man help defense;
5. Poor shooting percentage;
6. Poor boxing out on rebounds;
7. Slow to react to loose balls;
8. Lacking in guard "size" - frequently resulting in being "over/mis-matched" when playing man defense;
   
9. Poor zone press defense;
10. Poor (non-press) zone defense;
11. Poor execution of set offenses;
12. Lack of creativity in free flow offense - players often unsure "where to go/what to do" on half court offense
    

The games were further made more difficult by several players missing each game, so that we never had a full team in any of the games in the 2nd round and had as few as 7 players on the last game against Carlsberg. If we want to defend our MASUM championship this year, we will need a higher level of dedication and commitment from our players. If they only attend games/practices when they are "free" and have nothing else on, then we will not be successful.

At the same time, I wish to thank those players who attended the games without fail, especially those that sacrificed other commitments in favor of UMBT.

Almost all of the weaknesses highlighted above are due to lack of practice. This is both bad and good. Its "bad" in that it shows we have not had enough team practices in the last 1 1/2 semesters. Its "good" because it means we can improve and eliminate those weaknesses through commitment to attending practices going forward.

Chinese New Year is upon us and most players will be going back to home town by today or tomorrow. Consequently, no practice again this weekend. Can't be helped.

To all players and coaches : Happy Chinese New Year ... enjoy yourselves, watch the shooting DVD distributed previously, do the Air Alert Jump program and come back ready to re-commit to basketball team and individual practices.

Gong Xi Fa Cai !!