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The Malaysian Men's National team has flown off to Taiwan this morning to participate in the HPB International Basketball Invitational Tournament. Our team last participated in this tournament in 2007.

There are eight teams participating in this tournament, and the teams have been divided into two groups, with Malaysia in Group B. It will not be an easy task for our boys as they will be up against opponents like the NCAA All-Star team from USA, SBL title-contenders the Yulon Dinos and the Shanxi Zhongyu from China. Group A consists of three SBL teams, the Dacin Tigers, Kinmen Liquor, Inc. and Taiwan Beer, as well as the Kyung Hee University team from Korea.

The average age of the players on the Malaysia team is only 20.2 years of age, and will be coached by Soo Eng Heng, who himself had represented Malaysia in many international tournaments. Coach Soo had been helping out national team Head Coach, Goh Cheng Huat, while recuperating from his knee injury and this will be his first time as Head Coach of the National Men's team.

"This trip will be a learning experience for the players. All the other teams are considered top-caliber in the Asian region and it will be hard for us to beat them even if we sent our first-stringers. It is more important that our players play to the best of their own abilities," said Coach Soo.

"There is a distinct difference between being a coach and being a player and I hope that I will learn something new from this experience. I know that I am rather hard on the players, but I hope they understand that I am merely doing my duty as a coach."

By Chen Hui Jing ‧ 12th October 2009

二線隊征觀護杯 大馬志在開眼界

（吉隆坡12日訊）大馬男籃在這個10月份不寂寞，剛打完國際邀請賽的主力球員將集中火力征戰東南亞職籃聯賽（ABL），而二線隊員則前往台灣花蓮參加觀護杯國際邀請賽，志在取經學習。

這是大馬繼2007年之后再度受邀參賽，身處B組的大馬將面臨連場惡戰，對手包括由NCAA球員組成的美國明星隊、台灣超聯（SBL）勁旅裕隆以及中國CBA球隊山西中宇。

8支參賽隊分成兩組，小組前兩名進行交叉半決賽爭奪冠軍戰門票，A組球隊包括了應屆SBL冠軍達欣工程、金門酒廠、台灣啤酒及韓國慶熙大學。 大馬這次派出的球員，除了顏坊峰和郭添源之外，其余都是無緣參加大馬國際邀請賽的二線隊員，甚至連主教練也是菜鳥一名、首次執教國家隊的蘇永慶。

對于此前僅教過地方隊和學校隊的永慶來說，這次帶領國家二隊出征觀護杯可說是完成了“三級跳”，盡管曾經擔心做不來，但卻未曾感到有壓力。

蘇永慶掌軍 他在受訪時說：“我們此行的目標就是拿經驗，其它隊伍太強了，即使我們派主力球員參賽，恐怕也很難取得一場胜利。因此，輸贏對我們來說不是問題，最重要是打出自己的風格。”

永慶也是大馬男籃的主力控衛之一，但因膝傷已經很長時間沒打比賽，他在養傷期間一直擔任國家隊主帥吳清發的助手，角色有了很大的轉變。

他說：“對我個人而言，這是一次很好的學習過程，作為教練和球員的情況是完全不同的，這次我要抓住机會吸收新的東西。也許我會對球員很嚴厲，但我希望他們不要誤會我是在展示自己的權威，我只是盡自己作為教練的責任而已。”

中国报