I am watching the CUBA again (in halftime as we watch this post). Why? Because volleyball practice was canceled today due to incliment weather (not rain mind you - dust). So I subjected myself to the CUBA again.
And I owe them an appology. There is at least one team in the CUBA that passes decently (incidently from nearby Henan University). They can run the break fairly well considering that they have noone with the hight or the hops to finish above the rim. They have a big man who can find open shooters, although I use the term big loosely - this is a guy who's about 6'4" and probably weighs less than I do (and I'm losing weight again, probably down to about 175 thanks to a recent lower GI bug). And they make the hustle plays that, combined with the other team's total inability to make accurate passes, gets them on the break quite frequently.
The other team doesn't know how to deal with it. Passing has turned a bunch of not-very-tall skinny guys with awkward jump shots into a respectable team, just like it's supposed to. Toward the end of the first quarter these guys led 28-8. Then the refs got angry. "Passing and playing defense! Not in China!" they exclaimed and promptly called three quick touch fouls on Henan which had the desired effect of making them stop playing defense entirely.
In the meantime, I am totally mystified by the assortment of entertainment during the timeouts and halftime(which I get to watch because all the ads on Chinese TV come at the beginning and the end of an hour, usually a welcome continuity, but in this case somewhat pointless). First of all, there are three mascots running around: a monkey, a panda and what appears to be a pumpkin, which is making it hard for me to figure out which teams they belong to. The downtime entertainment also includes your typical dance teams, trying to show all their teeth while staying together to an overly frenetic beat. Them there is kung fu which is kinda entertaining. Then some guys with whips, which I assume is to fulfil the deep Chinese need to continuously punctuate the air with atonal loud noises. Then there is an opera singer. Then another dance team (who's music I recognize as a techno remix of the opening theme to Fushigi Yugi, the first Japanese anime series I ever watched). Then another team dancing to "Hey Mickey," the 80s cheerleader-themed hit. Curiouser and curiouser.
In the meantime, the score has reached 67-37. Henan has managed to widen the gap despite overzelous officiating and decreased defensive pressure due to Xinjiang's continued inability to pass and deep-seeded love of the three-pointer in traffic. In fact, they seem to feel lonely taking a shot without defenders to the point where they delay wide-open shots for full seconds. Please consider that this relatively high score (for a college game) is basically due to complete lack of defensive intensity rather than any particular offensive execution. Although I remain fairly impressed with Henan's fast break execution.
A final note. China seems to only be capable of producing fashions that I find either strangely fascinating and even attractive or painful to the naked eye. The jerseys are an example of the latter (as I mentioned last week). The fabric is too shiny, the shoulders are too broad and the amount of cloth in the midsection makes every player look either really fat or really skinny. The kung fu outfits are more of the same: too shiny, cut too loose, unattractive colors (they really love yellow in particular). The dance teams, however, are much better outfited (in my opinion) than most in the NBA. One group is 80s-tastic with short shorts and high socks for both the boys and the girls (incidently not the group singing mickey). Another have non-matching-but-matching black tee-shirts with punk-style elements that brings a nice element of asymetry to their routine (although that's probably the only thing Kim [Arrow, not Fogarty] would appreceate about it). As I mentioned, this is quite in keeping with most of China aesthetically: it never works in an understated way, it's either terrible, terrible to the point of being amazing or genuinely and surprisingly pleasing to the eye. Strange. I wonder if it's some sort of lingering culture shock, but I kinda doubt it.
Oh, and they still need to learn how to box out on rebounds.
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