Starting November 4th, the '2023 Korea High School Basketball Second Half Weekend League' is being held at the gymnasiums of Gyeongbok High School and Gwangshin Broadcasting Arts High School.
This competition is a pilot project to expand and establish the weekend league, and it does not discriminate between teams that advance to the King of Kings. Personal records are also not recognized as official. So there are only a few participating teams. Only 7 South High School teams and 11 South Central teams participated.
October, when professional basketball begins, is the start of the Ama Basketball Stove League. Stove League is a game in which fans gather around a stove to discuss trends in the team and club during the break after the professional baseball regular season, and it contains expectations and hopes for the next season.
After the regular season ends, there is a movement of players. There are players retiring, players transferring, and new players joining. There are also teams where the head coach changes. Fans appease the disappointment of not being able to watch the game by predicting or evaluating the change.
Ama Basketball's regular season ended with the National Sports Festival in October. Now we have to plan for next year. We need to raise the experience and skills of lower-grade players to fill the vacancies left by graduates, and create synergy with new students who will join us.
The second half of the weekend league is a great opportunity to gain experience for next year. Although it is the last competition of the year, it is more of a preparation for next year. Identifying the potential and potential of first- and second-year players and determining the direction of winter training is more important than wins and losses.
Of course, winning and losing are also important. These are the teams and players we will meet again next year in various competitions. Memories of victory lead to confidence. It is also an opportunity for players to prove themselves to their coaches. So I do my best in every game.
This is especially true in rivalry matches. Pride does not allow defeat. It does not discriminate between official and unofficial games. You have to win. The same goes for Gyeongbok High School and Yongsan High School, which we met on the 11th. Pride does not allow defeat.
Gyeongbok High School is the winning team of last year’s weekend league king of kings. The momentum of a 94-72 victory over Yongsan High School in the first round of the finals led to the championship. Yongsan High School was left with a huge gap as coach Lee Se-beom and three key players were sent to the 18-year-old national team.
Yongsan paid off its debt this year. We defeated Gyeongbok High School 93-57 in the final of King of Kings. Yongsan High School won 5 of the 7 competitions it participated in this year. Gyeongbok High School only finished second twice. The opponent in both finals was Yongsan.
Next year and this year could be very different. Gyeongbok High School is overwhelmingly tall and has good positional balance. There is no team that can compete with the height of the double post guarded by Yoon Hyun-seong (204) and Kim Seong-hoon (205). Shooter Lee Geun-jun (197 years old) is also a big man if he goes to another team.
There are unusually few tall players in the first and second years of high school this year. As of August's King of Kings Tournament, the only players taller than 2m who participated in the game were Gyeongbok's two big men and Samil High School's Wi Jin-seok. Yongsan High School also has Bae Seon-woo (198), the tallest player, and has not gained much experience this year.
This is why Yoon Hyun-seong and Kim Seong-hoon's height is so threatening. The two big men have combined for 87 points and 56 rebounds in the last two games of this tournament. Averages 43.5 points and 28 rebounds per game. Lee Geun-jun also added an average of 11 rebounds.
The three players averaged 39 rebounds per game. The average number of rebounds allowed to the opponent was 33, with the three players grabbing six more than the five players on the opposing team.
Yongsan High School has leading supporting actors Jang Hyuk-jun (193), Baek Ji-min (187), and Eddie Daniel (192), who have won five awards. Although he is inferior in height, he has a lot of experience. These are players who know how to win.
Basketball is a game where you win by scoring more points and conceding fewer goals than your opponent. All three players know how to reduce goals conceded. Jump a lot and actively bump your body. That is also the color of Yongsan High School. The driving force behind 14 wins over the past three years was defense.
Weakness is 3-point shooting. The trio has only made six 오피뷰 3-pointers in the last two games. Third-year students Lee Yu-jin, Kim Seung-woo, and Lee Kwan-woo are players who are strong at 3-point shooting. So the outside shooting of the three players did not read more stand out as a major weakness. But next year may be different.
Freshmen Kim Tae-in, Kim Yun-seo, and Bae Seon-woo are evaluated as having outside shooting abilities. However, there were not many opportunities to verify it in big games. He must prove his talent in the match on the 11th.
Gyeongbok brought the atmosphere in the first quarter. Yongsan got off to a good start with Baek Ji-min's cut-in, but the success rate was low both on the outside and under the goal. Gyeongbok tied Yongsan with 8 points and scored 18 points led by new captain Lee Geun-jun and Lee Je-jae and Lee Byeong-yeop's 3-pointers.
Yongsan's counterattack began in the second quarter. Freshman Kim Tae-in led the way with 8 points, including 2 3-pointers. Eddie Daniel (5 points) and Baek Ji-min (4 points) also broke through Gyeongbok's tall forest and scored under the goal.
Gyeongbok was able to maintain the score difference with scores from Lee Geun-jun (7 points) and Lee Byeong-yeop (4 points). However, Hyun-Seong Yoon (2 points) and Seong-Hoon Kim (4 points) did not score as expected. The two big men only scored 2 and 6 points in the first half, respectively.
Yongsan put strong pressure on the Gyeongbok player who caught the ball. Excluding Byeong-Yeop Lee, he took advantage of Gyeongbok's weak point of not having good ball handling. They bullied the two big men from getting the ball near the rim, and when they did, they cleaned it up underneath.
Yongsan showed more strength in the third quarter. Starting with Kim Tae-in, Kim Min-jae and Baek Ji-min combined for four 3-point shots. Following the second quarter, Kim Tae-in scored 8 points, including 2 3-pointers, in the third quarter, and Eddie Daniel showed off his presence in defense and rebounding. Eddie Daniel played full time and recorded 16 points, 13 rebounds, 6 steals, and 2 blocks.
Gyeongbok failed to launch a prepared attack against Yongsan's strong defense. I had to attack the rim using my individual abilities. They scored only 12 points in the third quarter and allowed a comeback. This trend continued until the fourth quarter. Hyun-Seong Yoon showed strength late in the fourth quarter with 11 points, but it was not enough to turn the game around.
No third graders played in this game. There were few players available. Although the conditions were the same, it worked against Gyeongbok High School. There were differences between the players on both teams in their ball handling skills. Gyeongbok High School in 2024 may be different. However, it was also pointed out that the use of the two big men requires more careful preparation.
Yongsan High School's ace Jang Hyuk-jun built pride with 9 points in the fourth quarter. Although they struggled with 5 points until the 3rd quarter, they were able to successfully attack Gyeongbok's defense, which was widened by Kim Tae-in's 3-point shot, and Kim Seong-hoon's 5 fouls. However, there was also the challenge of increasing the shooting distance.
Kim Tae-in's performance was dazzling until the end. A 3-point shot and steal late in the fourth quarter virtually sealed the game. While there were three sophomores on defense, there was freshman Kim Tae-in on offense.
Today's battle is not over. This is a preview of a new beginning. For them, the Gyeongbok High School gym is narrow. We must challenge ourselves to pursue bigger dreams in broader places.
Michael Jordan missed 9,000 shots and lost 3,000 games. LeBron James, the NBA's all-time leading scorer, made 5,000 errors for the first time in the NBA. If you are afraid of failure, you will not succeed. The key to success is a strong spirit of challenge and tireless effort.
Winter is the time when young basketball players come out of their shells. It's a time when you can put aside the burden of academics and focus entirely on basketball. Through this process, these players become the future of Korean basketball. Hope for Korean basketball was growing in the Gyeongbok High School gymnasium.