Taiwan’s University Basketball Association’s (UBA) 2021-2022 season is slated to tip off this month with the theme “A better us” (更好的我們), which highlights the cooperation of everyone involved in making the league possible.
The league announced at a press conference in Taipei Tuesday that the upcoming season will feature 15 men’s and 12 women’s collegiate teams from across the country, competing for the respective men’s and women’s titles.
The women’s division begins on Nov. 12 at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology with National Taiwan Normal University facing National Tsing Hua University.
The men’s division starts on Nov. 22 at Fu Jen Catholic University with Chien Hsin University of Science and Technology against Vanung University.
The playoffs will begin in late February, with the finals to be held in March.
Tseng Ching-yu (曾慶裕), secretary-general of Taiwan’s University Sports Federation, said the theme of the new UBA season aims to highlight that there is more to just winning or losing a basketball game, because the effort of all the league partners, teachers, coaches, and the players is much more meaningful than the figures on the scoreboard.
“The spirit of everyone putting in an effort at every game is something that is memorable and which we can all look back on and remember,” he said.
The UBA made headlines around the country in March when Mohammad Al Bachir Gadiaga, a Senegalese-Taiwanese player who was on the Shih Hsin University (SHU) team, complained to the referee that he had been called a racial slur by National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) player Lin Shih-hsuan (林仕軒) just seconds before the end of an intense playoff quarterfinal game.
“He called me a n*****!” Bachir told the referee, after a tussle in which he made a hard swipe at an NTNU player in an attempt to stop the clock before NTNU eventually prevailed 65-62 over SHU.
The incident caused an uproar in Taiwan with the Sports Administration, the country’s top sports regulatory authority, issuing a statement saying it will adopt international rules for all subsequent games to prevent similar incidents, while Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) condemned racism.
National Taiwan University of Arts basketball team freshman Jonathan Smith Matthew, who is from South Africa, told CNA he is not that nervous about the upcoming season and is ready to take on the challenges on the court.
There have been times in the past when similar situations have occurred on the basketball court where people have called him “white trash,” the 18-year-old Matthew said.
“But I think this is part of the game, you have to get used to it because if you let someone affect your mind, it may end your whole career if you snap and do something wrong,” Matthew said.
Trash-talking will always be a part of the game, Matthew said, adding that some players purposely run their mouths to make good players play bad.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel