The 2021-22 B.League season officially began earlier today with a single pairing pitting Ryukyu against Tokyo.
This will be followed by a big splash of games from Friday, October 1, to Sunday, October 3. Filipino fans will be following closely as five of the eight Filipino imports will be plunging into action.
Of particular curiosity and interest, undoubtedly, will be the encounter between the San-en Neophoenix which will feature a returning Thirdy Ravena and the Shiga Lakestars which will be parading Kiefer Ravena.
The two teams play each other twice – the first on Saturday, October 2, at 4:05 pm, and the second on Sunday, October 3, at 1:35 pm.
With a season of play in Japan under his belt, Thirdy will have the benefit of familiarity.
The pre-season has provided a glimpse of how the younger Ravena has grown accustomed to the intricacies of the system of San-en’s Serbian coach Branislav Vicentic. Thirdy registered 10 points, six rebounds, three assists, and two steals against Levanga Hokkaido, then followed it up with a 20-point, six-rebound performance against the same team in back-to-back preseason games.
Vicentic will look for more of the same from Thirdy in the regular season especially given the departure of last season’s leading local scorer Hayato Kawashima, who contributed 10.2 points, 4.1 assists and 2.4 steals, and Takanobu Nishikawa, who averaged 8.0 points and 3.3 boards. Kawashima is now with the Akita Northern Happinets while Nishikawa will be teammates with Javi Gomez de Liaño at the Ibaraki Robots.
San-en Neophoenix will have the edge over Shiga Lakestar in the two and three spots. Aside from Thirdy, Vicentic also can call on 23-year-old Kazuma Tsuya, a 6-foot-3 shooting guard who represented Japan in the 2017 FIBA Under-19 World Cup. Tsuya joined San-en halfway through last season and averaged 6.1 points on 34.8-percent shooting from three.
Two additions have deepened San-En’s rotation at the wings.
Yusei Sugiura, a pick-up from Shimane Susanoo Magic with whom he averaged 6.75 points, is a versatile 6-foot-5 small forward who also plays for the Japan men’s 3×3 national team. Six-foot-one guard Yoshiyuki Matsuwaki was a key member of the Toyama Grouses last year where he averaged 5.2 points in 19 minutes of action.
Shiga may be able to match the length of San-en’s wing platoon, but they will find it a challenge to approximate the athleticism and production of Thirdy, Tsuya, Suguira, and Matsuwaki.
The Lakestars lost its two best locals from last season, Kevin Hareyama and Masaya Karimata, who both averaged 8.0 points. The Lakestars signed 6-foot-5 Shotaro Hayashi from the Niiagata Albirex who averaged 5.3 points last season and 6-foot-4 Naoto Moriyama who scored just 1.2 points for the Hiroshima Dragonflies. Six-foot-two shooter Tomamasa Ozawa will be coming in from Division II squad Ehime Orange Vikings where he averaged 7.2 points. A surprise package could be 20-year-old Marcus Kaishu Tobin, a 6-foot-5 rookie who played high school and community college basketball in the US.
Photo from @lguiltorres
The Shiga Lakestars, though, have a top-notch coach in Luis Guil Torres who knows how to offset any disadvantage his team may be facing. Torres started coaching in Division 3 of the B League in 2019. He got his squad, the Saga Ballooners, promoted to Division 2 last season.
The 49-year-old Torres is the assistant coach of the Spanish national team. He has been the head coach of Spain’s Under-18 and Under-20 national teams. He also coached Tecnyconta Zaragoza in the Spanish Liga ACB in 2017.
An area that Torres could probably exploit would be the backcourt. He has the luxury of either rotating the four heady point guards he has at his disposal or setting two of them loose on the floor at the same time.
Aside from Kiefer, the Lakestars also boast of 6-foot Daichi Nomoto, 5-foot-11 Teppei Kashiwagura, and 5-foot-9 Reon Shibuta.
Nomoto is one of only two holdovers from last season’s Shiga roster. He is a deadshot who connected on 38-percent from beyond the arc for the Lakestars. Kashiwagura was a reliable backup for the Niiagata Albirex. Shibuta is a 23-year-old playmaker who blossomed under Torres’ tutelage in the B League Division II. Shibuta averaged 5.6 assists and 9.0 points for the Ballooners as he served as Torres’ extension on the floor.
San-En Neophoenix, on the other hand, will no longer have undersized point guards Shuto Terazono (5-foot-5) and Tatsuya Suzuki (5-foot-7) this season. In their place, Vicentic recruited two crack playmakers who will have to double down to keep pace with the Shiga guards.
Five-foot-eleven Ryo Tawatari, formerly with the Hiroshima Dragonflies, played US NCAA Division II college basketball for Dominican University of California from 2015-17 where he averaged close to 9 points and 4.3 assists per game. Five-foot-eleven Syota Tsuyama is a former Japan Under-18 national team player who last played for the Toyota Alvark. Tsuyama came close to playing in the Canadian National Basketball League (NBL) for the Halifax Hurricanes in 2019.
Imports usually cancel each other out in the B. League. In the San-En versus Shiga tussle, it does seem like San-En has the slight edge in import pedigree.
The San-en frontline will be anchored by 6-foot-9 Robert Carter who last season averaged 17.4 points and 7.8 boards for the Yokohama B-Corsairs. Carter played for Georgia Tech and Maryland in the US NCAA. He has seen action for the Golden State Warriors and the Denver Nuggets in the NBA Summer League.
Six-foot-eight German national team mainstay and former NBA player Elias Harris will play either of the forward positions for San-En. Harris, a product of the Gonzaga Bulldogs, briefly saw action for the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2013-14 NBA season. He previously suited up for Basket Zaragoza in the Spanish Liga ACB. The 3rd import for San-en is 6-foot-9 former North Carolina Tar Heel Justin Knox who last year was in the Korean Basketball League.
For Shiga, Torres selected an import he was familiar with and two other imports who know the European brand of play. Six-foot-ten center Sean O’Mara played in the B League Division 2 the previous season for the Bambitious Nara where he normed 18.2 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks. He will provide the shot-blocking presence in the interior for the Lakestars.
Six-foot-seven Argentine Novar Gadson played US NCAA Division I basketball and spent the past 4 seasons in the Argentine league where he has averaged over 15 points a game while 6-foot-7 Ovie Soko of Britain spent his collegiate years playing US NCAA Division I basketball before embarking on a pro career that has taken him to Greece and France. He also played three seasons for UCam Murcia in the Spanish Liga ACB.
The San-En Neophoenix and the Shiga Lakestars both play in the West of the B League. San-En finished 9th out of the 10 teams in the division last season while Shiga finished 6th.
Both teams will want a strong start this season by winning both opening weekend games. But it is also not unlikely that the two will end up splitting both games.
