7 Players to watch at FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2018

NONTHABURI (FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2018) – The eight premier basketball clubs in Asia will be marching out a strong cast of players to showcase in Thailand at the FIBA Asia Champions Cup. With a chance to claim the title as the Champion of Asian Champions on the line, there is no doubt that there will be many players to keep your eyes on as the games commence action.

Here are 7 players to watch at the FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2018!

Marcus Keene (Mono Vampire Basketball Club)

When the Mono Vampire Basketball Club announced that mainstay import player and passing wizard Jason Brickman had suffered an injury and would not be playing in the FIBA Asia Champions Cup this year, all eyes were on who they would get that would be able to replace Brickman’s contributions.

It seems like that person could be Marcus Keene, the 23-year-old American spitfire scoring guard who led the entire NCAA Division 1 with 30.0 points per game in 2017. Though Keene is similarly sized as Brickman at 5’9”, the resemblance pretty much stops there. Where Brickman is a pass-first (and probably pass-second) point guard, Keene makes it a priority to score and score and score which he does extremely well. After going undrafted in the 2017 draft and playing in the Summer League with the Washington Wizards, Keene spent last season playing in Italy where he put up 18.9 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 2.9 assists in 30 games.

Mono Vampire have been used to having a floor general like Brickman move the ball around, so it will be interesting to see how they adjust to a different style of play with Keene handling the controls.

Mark Lyons (Al-Riyadi)

Al-Riyadi won the FIBA Asia Champions Cup last year with import players Chris Daniels and ex-NBA player Quincy Douby but the impact of star guard, Wael Arakji, should not be overshadowed.

The team will be without Arakji this year, after an injury suffered in April, leaving a large hole at the guard position. Filling in that vacancy should be Mark Lyons, a well-traveled 29-year-old American guard, who has made a significant stamp anywhere he plays. Lyons starred at Xavier University before transferring to the University of Arizona where he continued to be a force and was named to First Team All-PAC12 back in 2013. His professional career has spanned from Belgium, Turkey and China but he’s been a superstar in Israel where he is a two-time All-Star, two-time scoring leader, and a champion.

As he takes the role of an important position for the defending champions, there will be a lot of pressure for the 6’1” New York native. However, he has continuously proven that he has the skills to get him through.

Seiya Ando (Alvark Tokyo)

The journey of Seiya Ando to becoming the floor general of the 2017-2018 B.League champions is winding and interesting. After averaging 21.2 points, 6.1 assists, and 6.4 rebounds at Meiji University, Ando took an unexpected route to become the first Japanese player to every play in the Canadian NBL. Ando was named to the NBL All-Rookie Team in his lone season after averaging 10.0 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 3.8 assists.

He then continued to turn heads as he signed on as an Asian Import in the Philippines Basketball Association (PBA) for the Meralco Bolts, a team he will be facing here in the FIBA Asia Champions Cup. Ando returned to play in Japan with the Akita Northen Happinets in 2016-2017 before eventually signing with his current team, Alvark Tokyo last season, where he averaged 8.7 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 2.6 assists.

Every step of the way, Ando has proven to be a gritty and determined player which has propelled Alvark Tokyo to their recent success. Ando and the team will be up against stiff competition once again, going up against some of the best clubs in Asia. But the 6’1” guard has done a good job of leading the team so far, so there’s no reason to doubt that he can do so once again in this tournament.

Baser Amer (Meralco Bolts)

With the Meralco Bolts riddled with injuries to their usual contributors like Ranidel De Ocampo and Jared Dillinger, other players will have to step up another notch to support the hulking import player duo of Allen Durham and Diamond Stone.

Among the players who are expected to be relied on heavily for the Bolts here at the FIBA Asia Champions Cup is Baser Amer. The 25-year-old guard went from a collegiate star in the Philippines to a two-time South East Asian Games (SEA Games) gold medalist and has now recently been cracking into the shortlist for the Senior Men’s National Team. The two-time PBA All-Star has consistently improved every year in the PBA for the past three seasons and is currently averaging 12.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 4.0 assists this year.

The Bolts will need consistent guard play to feed their two primary targets, Durham and McMorrow, and the best option on the team right now is Amer – which should not be a problem for Coach Norman Black at all.

Douglas Creighton (Pauian Archiland)

Pauian Archiland were without Creighton for the East Inter-Subzone Qualifying Round of the FIBA Asia Champions Cup and while they were able to sweep the competition nonetheless, his addition to the team in the Final 8 round of the competition will certainly make them even better.

Creighton was already a part of the Pauian team that finished in 6^th place of the FIBA Asia Champions Cup back in 2016, averaging a solid 6.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.9 assists. He was a solid contributor to the team in their SBL championship campaign, shooting a blistering 41.2% from long range and putting a team second-best 11.8 points per contest. The 33-year-old has been consistently called up the represent the Chinese-Taipei national team as well, which is actually why he was unable to attend the qualifying phase.

Now that Creighton is expected to be with the team in the FIBA Asia Champions Cup, the already accurate shooting of Pauian should be even more dangerous throughout the entire week.

Kim Sun-Hyung (SK Knights)

The 30-year-old is the face of the SK Knights franchise and rightfully so. Over his 7 years playing for the Knights in the Korean Basketball League (KBL), Sun-Hyung has never averaged less than 10 points per game only until this past season where he suffered an ankle injury early in the year. Sun-Hyung made a strong return, averaged 9.2 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per game before proudly winning his first ever KBL title.

The guard is a mainstay on the National team and is known for his all-around contribution and is now stepping into a more veteran leadership role, just as he is expected to do so with the SK Knights. The Knights will need every bit of Sun-Hyung’s excellence here at the FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2018, their first ever appearance in the tournament.

Arsalan Kazemi (Petrochimi)

Petrochimi had only one import player at the FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2017 (Willie Warren) but was still able to make it all the way to finish at 3^rd place. A large part of that was because star Iranian forward Arsalan Kazemi himself plays just as excellent as an import player.

Kazemi left the scoring load to Warren last year, but still ended up as the most efficient player on the team with a 21.1 efficiency rating. Though he only put up a modest 9.6 points per game, it came on 60.9% shooting and he did a little bit of everything else with 11.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and a whopping 2.3 steals.

Petrochimi should be even more loaded this year, as they look to finally breakout and get to the championship game. Make no mistake that once they get to that stage, Kazemi will have had a massive impact on leading them there.

FIBA