‘Superteam’ falls short of expectations, finishes 5th in regular season
“Finishing off SK in 3 games and challenging for the championship”
“I can’t forget the flowers I received from a fan.”
Busan KCC head coach Jeon Chang-jin (61) spoke of ‘miracles’ at the start of ‘spring basketball’.
“Actually, the fifth place in the regular season is embarrassing as a coach,” Jeon said at the PO media day held at the Olympic Parktel 먹튀검증 in Seoul on Feb. 2. “I need a miracle, but I want to win the PO to relieve the fans of my regret.”
KCC was dubbed the KBL’s “super team” last summer for its roster of national-level players (Choi Jun-yong, Heo Woong, Song Gyo-chang, Lee Seung-hyun, and Ragan-ah), but its regular season performance fell short of expectations.
The reason why the former head coach talked about the miracle of KCC’s championship was their physical strength. Professional basketball has a ‘handicap’ system where the 3rd-6th place in the regular season starts with the best-of-six PO. After the quarterfinals, they play a best-of-seven championship series, so physical strength is important.
Since its inception in 1996, the KBL has never had a fifth-place finish. It was a fan’s sincerity that spurred the veteran coach, who knows this fact better than anyone. A day earlier, he had been presented with a blue rose at the Korean Basketball Association awards ceremony and was once again motivated to win. “I had an embarrassing performance as a coach, but when I received the gift and asked the meaning of the blue rose, I was told ‘miracle’. I realized my responsibility,” he said.
If KCC wants to pull off a miracle, they’ll need to get off to a good start on Thursday. For the second consecutive season, they will face another super team, Seoul SK.
“When we met SK last year, we had a terrible PO,” said Jeon. This year, we will do the opposite and finish the quarterfinals in three games,” said Jeon. The corner that Jeon believes in is KCC’s new look early offense. This tactic, which involves a fast-paced offense with a 24-second time limit, has the advantage of increasing the number of attacks and success rate. It’s not easy for the players to maintain a fast tempo for the entire 40 minutes, but it paid off in their final game against SK on March 31, when they won 102-79. “The first move is important,” said SK head coach Jeon Hee-chul. It’s good that we’ve experienced it once,” he warned.
“Now we have to really show responsibility. The players know better why we didn’t do well in the regular season. Let’s show the fans the miracle they want.”