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Not a tiny town

1/15/2013

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According to online figures, the population of Yokohama is nearly 3.7 million people.

So why are the Yokohama B-Corsairs holding regular-season games in Hiratsuka, Odawara and Ebina, among other locales? Yokohama is its home.

The team has a golden opportunity to grow its fan base in a big, diverse, multicultural city, a city where all of its regular-season games should be held. But it needs to take advantage of the size of Yokohama to market itself -- and sell tickets.

The preseason is the time for barnstorming -- then and only then.

In a nutshell, the B-Corsairs approach to scheduling games is like the entire bj-league's. It's illogical. It is, in reality, one of the league's chief problems, maybe its biggest one.

Pro teams ought to have, well, home-court advantage.

Which means they ought to play their games at ONE facility the majority of the time. After all, this is pro sports not a traveling circus.

And by having games primarily at one facility, fans get in the habit of going there game after game, making that place a special part of their leisure time. It becomes a tradition to visit (fill in the blank). Just like New York Yankees fans showing up to Yankee Stadium generation after generation.




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Coach Geary reflects on series finale

1/13/2013

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Looking back on his team's effort tonight against the Gunma Crane Thunders, Yokohama B-Corsairs coach Reggie Geary passed along this insight via email that somehow got lost in cyberspace until after deadline.

"We felt good today to have a positive result after a lackluster performance the night before," Geary said after Yokohama's 79-61 win on Sunday.
 
"We had one of our best stat sheets of the season with strong contributions from a number of players: All-Star Draelon Burns had 22 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists; Thomas Kennedy, 18 points and 6 rebounds; and (Masayuki) Kabaya, 11 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists. Player of the game, Pape Faye Mour, had a solid all-around performance with 14 points and 13 rebounds.
 
"Defense as always was one of big keys to victories, but also our willingness to share the ball offensively led to a number of good looks.
 
"We will have to continue with this type of good quality play on both ends of the floor versus an always-competitive Akita team coming to town this Tuesday and Wednesday."

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Another thought

1/12/2013

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The HeatDevils went 9-4 to open the season. Having lost 12 straight and showing no signs of legitimate, steady improvement,
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Today's idea, Part II

1/12/2013

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Until Japanese pro basketball solves its home venue problem - the need for all teams to have one main arena (instead of three, four, five, 12, whatever) - the sport can't prosper.

Until that time, it will continue to resemble a traveling circus, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade...
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Today's idea

1/12/2013

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By the way, 20 of 21 bj-league teams are in action today (10 games), but none on playing on national TV; BJTV does not count -- no announcers, no professional broadcasting crew to entertain  and educate the viewing public.

The league's existence is a day-to-day crisis of epic proportions.
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Who's hot/Who's not?

1/8/2013

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For each of the league's 21 teams, here's the rundown on their wins and losses (in that order) over their past 10 games, reporting the numbers from top to bottom in both conferences, and overall record in parentheses through Sunday.

Western Conference

Ryukyu - 7-3 (19-3)
Shimane - 7-3 (16-8)
Fukuoka - 8-2 (16-8)
Hamamatsu - 8-2 (17-9)
Shiga - 7-3 (14-10)
Kyoto - 6-4 (12-12)
Takamatsu - 5-5 (9-15)
Oita - 0-10 (9-15)
Osaka - 3-7 (4-18)
Miyazaki - 1-9 (3-21)


Eastern Conference
Iwate - 7-3 (18-6)

Niigata - 8-2 (18-7)
Yokohama - 9-1 (17-7)
Akita - 5-5 (13-7)
Toyama - 6-4 (15-9)
Shinshu - 2-8 (13-13)
Chiba - 5-5 (10-12)
Sendai - 4-6 (8-13)
Tokyo - 4-6 (9-15)
Gunma - 3-7 (4-20)
Saitama - 1-9 (3-19)




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Top Japanese scorers

1/4/2013

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Double-digit Japanese scorers (through Jan. 3)
1. Tokyo's Cohey Aoki - 14.8 points per game
2. Toyama's Masashi Joho & Ryukyu's Narito Namizato - 14.4
3. Saitama's Yuki Kitamuki - 13.7
4. Niigata's Yuichi Ikeda & Miyazaki's Yuto Otsuka - 12.2
5. Yokohama's Masayuki Kabaya - 12.1
6. Kyoto's Yu Okada - 11.9
7. Akita's Shigehiro Taguchi - 11.6
8. Niigata's Kimitake Sato - 11.4
9. Oita's Taishiro Shimizu - 11.3
10. Saitama's Takuma Yamashiro - 11.1
11. Shinshu's Takanori Goya & Toyama's Takeshi Mito - 11.0
12. Iwate's Kenichi Takahashi - 10.9
13. Fukuoka's Akitomo Takeno - 10.0
Others...
*Kyoto's Masaharu Kataoka & Takamatsu's Hiroyuki Kikuchi - 9.9
*Shiga's Shinya Ogawa - 9.8
*Sendai's Takuya Komoda - 9.6
*Ryukyu's Naoto Kosuge - 9.5
*Fukuoka's Jun Nakanishi & Sendai's Yasuaki Arai - 9.4
*Sendai's Takehiko Shimura - 9.1
*Gunma's Kenya Tomori - 9.0
*Shimane's Koki Yabuuchi - 8.9
*Gunma's Shingo Okada - 8.5
*Shimane's Tatsuhiro Yokoo - 8.5
*Ryukyu's Morihisa Yamauchi - 8.3
*Chiba's Hiroki Sato - 8.2

Note: Through Jan. 3 there are 61 bj-league players averaging 10 or more points per game, those who have played a minimum number of games, according to the official stats.
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    Ed Odeven

    I'm a sports writer, columnist and editor for The Japan Times.
    This site is an extension of my work covering the bj-league. News, commentary, notes, quotes and anecdotes about the bj-league.

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