Sports weekend............

Last weekend we again caught some local sporting events by going to a Tochigi Brex basketball game Friday night and a Nikko Icebucks game on Sunday afternoon.
The Brex who are have now moved from the JBL2 to the top level JBL league won handily over Osaka Panasonic 91-73. This year they have 3 American players on the roster and probably what is Japans premier and only Japanese player to get drafted to NBA team Yuta Tabuse, who really had some excellent skills.
Sunday brought the last home game of the year for the Nikko Icebucks. Its been another long season for the Icebucks even with the addition of the Canadian players. However we weren't disappointed as we finally got to see them win a game, and win it quite handily at 5-3. Good to see them give their rabid fans a victory to finish out the year.
Whether you live in Utsunomiya or just visit on business you really should try to get out and see these teams play if they are in town, you would probably enjoy it.

The Tochigi Brex 栃木ブレックス

Tochigi has a team in the JBL2 which is like the AAA of Japans pro basketball league the JBL. The Tochigi Brex split time between the cities of Utsunomiya, and Oyama.
Here in Utsunomiya they play at the City Gym which is a 3 minute walk from our apartment, so we went over yesterday to watch a game. We had court side seats which was nice. The Brex are actually pretty decent(relatively speaking) and are currently in 3rd place in thier league. They easily handled the Ibaraki/Hitachi team they played 109-78.
The Brex currently have 3 American players, 1 of which had 10 years NBA experience(quite a while ago as he is now 38), who along with another had recently been playing in Europe. There is another Japanese American who has only played pro in Japan, but he played his college ball at Nevada-Reno. It was nice to see some hoops, and while the crowd wasn't that large for this game its my understanding that they usually do have some pretty large crowds both here and at Oyama.
For PR they come around after the game and shake hands with the fans and it was kind of funny because several of the guys actually recognized us and our friends because we hang out at the Iceman bar, which is also one of the places they frequent and have "team gatherings".
Since the Gym is close and we like hoops, I'm sure we will attend a few more of their games. It is our understanding they are trying to build the team up and get there fan base better established for a push to acquire a slot in the top level JBL. Anyhow, enjoy the pics and here are some links.
http://www.tochigibrex.com/index.html
http://www.blogger.com/http//www.tochigibrex.com/player/index.html/index.html
http://www.jbl.or.jp/jbl2/