Pure-Youth Construction Basketball Team

Pure-Youth Construction (basketball)
League SBL
Based in Taiwan
Colors orange, white
Head coach United States Ben Metcalf
Championships 4 in the SBL

The Pure-Youth Construction Basketball Team (璞園建設籃球隊) is a semi-professional basketball team in the Super Basketball League (SBL) of Taiwan.

History

The franchise derives its history to the celebrated Hung Kuo Elephants (宏國象) as they created the only dynasty of the defunct Chinese Basketball Alliance in Taiwan (CBA-Taiwan) between 1996 and 1998. Under the previous ownership by Sina.com and corporate sponsorship by BenQ, the team had also competed in the Chinese Basketball Association of the People's Republic of China (CBA-PRC) in the 2001–2002 and 2002–2003 seasons as the Sina Lions (新浪獅) or BenQ-Sina Lions (明基新浪獅) before becoming a founding member of the SBL in 2003.[1]

During the CBA-Taiwan period, the Elephants were the unmatched three-time champions [2] and the most favored squad holding a considerably larger share of young fans attending the game compared with the other clubs in the league. Nonetheless, they did not have a chance to defend their third championship because the game was discontinued midway the 1998–1999 season due to financial problems. In the aftermath of the league's sudden close down, the club had hit its own financial drought until it was rescued by Sina.com from the brink of disbandment around 2000.

As the Sina Lions, they moved to join the other professional league abbreviated as "CBA" in mainland China. Having played from a homecourt in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China, the Lions made the quarter-finals in their first year with the CBA-PRC but finished 13th out of 14 teams in the league with a disappointing 7–19 record in the ensuing season and dropped out from the top-tier Division A league (甲级A组联赛). The club then withdrew from mainland China and moved back to Taiwan to join the newly founded SBL there. In the SBL's inaugural 2003–2004 season, the Lions had a second-place finish and was the runner up in the championship series against the Yulon Dinos, their long-time rival in Taiwan.

Following the retirement – forced or voluntary – of a number of aged staters, the younger Lions ended up with an embarrassing 3–27 record in the 2004–2005 season. Between 2005 and 2007, the team was turned over between various corporate owners/sponsors including YMY Telephone Marketing (幼敏電銷), Azio TV (東風衛視), and Pure-Youth Construction (璞園建築), the current owner of the team. With the improvement of the young players on the team, Pure-Youth has been able to register increasing wins and made its first postseason appearance since the Lions period in 2008.

2010-11 Roster

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationality not displayed.

Pure-Youth Construction roster
Players Coaches
Pos. # Nat. Name Ht. Wt. Age
G 1 Taiwan Tso Tsung-kai 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) 29 – (1986-09-15)15 September 1986
F 3 Taiwan Huang Chi-feng 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) 85 kg (187 lb) 31 – (1984-03-12)12 March 1984
G 4 Taiwan Ke Chi-ho 1.81 m (5 ft 11 in) 85 kg (187 lb) 30 – (1985-11-29)29 November 1985
G 6 Taiwan Chen Shih-chieh (basketball) 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) 80 kg (176 lb) 31 – (1984-09-24)24 September 1984
G/F 7 Taiwan Lin Tsun-ching 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) 92 kg (203 lb) 29 – (1986-04-22)22 April 1986
G/F 9 Taiwan Lin Ching-pang 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) 84 kg (185 lb) 30 – (1985-06-12)12 June 1985
F 10 Taiwan Chu Yi-tsung 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in) 80 kg (176 lb) 29 – (1986-08-04)4 August 1986
G/F 14 Taiwan Tsai Wen-cheng 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) 98 kg (216 lb) 30 – (1985-05-31)31 May 1985
G 15 Taiwan Hung Chih-shan 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in) 80 kg (176 lb) 30 – (1985-07-05)5 July 1985
F 17 Taiwan Chien Chia-hong 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) 108 kg (238 lb) 28 – (1987-03-06)6 March 1987
F 23 Taiwan Chang Yu-lin 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) 86 kg (190 lb) 30 – (1986-01-16)16 January 1986
F 24 United States Rashad Jones-Jennings 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) 104 kg (229 lb) 31 – (1984-08-31)31 August 1984
C 26 Taiwan Lin Huan-chao 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) 118 kg (260 lb) 30 – (1985-04-18)18 April 1985
G/F 31 Taiwan Mao Chia-eh 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) 93 kg (205 lb) 33 – (1982-11-16)16 November 1982
F 77 Taiwan Chen Yao-ting 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 102 kg (225 lb) 27 – (1988-06-08)8 June 1988
Head coach
  • United States Ben Metcalf
Assistant coach(es)
  • Taiwan Yang Yifeng
  • Taiwan Huang Qifeng
Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • Injured

Roster
Updated: 2011-05-18

Notable players

 

See also

References

  1. ↑ Franchise history on its official website, in Chinese
  2. ↑ In addition to the official championships, they were able to defeat Yulon, the CBA's first champion team, in an unofficial exhibition series following the conclusion of the latter's championship season
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