FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2017 Preview: Mono Vampires

With less than a day left before the tipoff of the FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2017, here’s a preview of the Mono Vampires from Thailand!

[อ่านภาษาไทย คลิกที่นี่เลยครับ]

To get up to speed, make sure to read our first three introductory writeups on the FIBA Asia Champions Cup first: here, here and here.

/waits hopelessly for readers to actually go read the articles

…oh hey! You’re back! I hope you got to know a lot more about the FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2017 from those articles. In the case that you were too lazy to go through all of that… I’ll run down a brief introduction.

The FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2017 is a club tournament organised by FIBA for the Asia region pitting some of the top clubs in Asia against each other. Teams qualify via a sub-regional club tournament, unless the other teams in the sub-region care not to attend (Mono Vampires) or another team withdraws and FIBA give you a wildcard (Chooks-To-Go Pilipinas). The 10 clubs will be playing against each other in a 9 day tournament hosted in Guangzhou, China.

(seriously though, just read here, here and here for more details)

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The team of interest in this article is none other than the team from Thailand, the Mono Vampires!

FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2017: Mono Vampires

Mono Vampires: How They Got Here

I’m just putting this here for anyone who hasn’t cared to read this other writeup where I already explained clearly about the process of qualification for the Mono Vampires.

Long story short, FIBA Asia required SEABA to host a SEABA Club Championship. Thailand offered to be host. No other country participated, so SEABA just gave out the slot to Thailand who in turn handed it to the Mono Vampires.

“We are excited to get the opportunity to play some of the top clubs in Asia,” Star point guard Jason Brickman says. “We know it is going to be a challenging week but we are looking forward to competing against some really good talent.”

Mono Vampires: Who They Are

The Mono Vampires are a basketball club established in 2014, owned by Mr. Pete Bhodaramik of the Mono Group. They leapfrogged the steps of basketball hierarchy in Thailand by gathering top-level talent from different clubs in a short span of time. The team won 3rd place in their inaugural TBL season and finally claimed the TBL title in only their second year of existence. Their next venture was in the ASEAN Basketball League, but came out at 5th place.

The Thailand basketball powerhouse repeated their TBL title the following season and the season after to complete the three-peat. In between the second and third TBL titles, the Vampires also managed to win the Thailand Basketball Super League as well.

Mono Vampires: Who They Have

Here’s the official roster and projected depth chart for the Mono Vampires in the FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2017:

PG	Jason Brickman (*)	Sorot Sunthornsiri
SG	Kannut Samerjai	Ratdech Kruatiwa	Sirapong Boonyai
SF	Darongphan Apiromwilaichai	Pairach Sekteera	Narathip Boonserm
PF	Michael Singletary (*)	Chanachon Klahan	Arnat Phuangla
C	Teerawat Chantachon

Take note that Singletary is not yet listed in the official roster on the FIBA website. However, the Mono Vampires team manager, Apichok Saekow, and Jason Brickman have both mentioned him as the team’s second Import in this tournament.

And he’s travelling with the team, too.

The roster is loaded with Thailand’s top star and multiple National Team players.

Samerjai, Apiromwilaichai, and Chantachon are arguably the best players in their position in the country and they are flanked by two reliable veterans, Klahan and Kruatiwa. These five along with Brickman and Singlestary should be the main rotation for Head Coach Douglas Marty.

Sunthornsiri, Sekteera, and Boonserm all have at least one national team cap on their resume, but they might find it hard to break in to the rotation with the level of competition the Vampires will be going up against.

That leaves a heavy burden for the two imports, Jason Brickman and Michael Singletary, to shoulder. The two have starred for the Mono Vampires for a while so familiarity won’t be an issue. Brickman is going to be one of the best point guards in the entire tournament, which is quite a mouthful to say considering the level of guard play in the FIBA Asia Champions Cup. He’s been with the team for three straight competitions (TBL 2016, TBSL 2017, TBL 2017) and has won nearly every single award imaginable whether it is individual or team accolades.

Singletary has played for the Vampires in two straight championship winning competitions (TBSL 2017, TBL 2017) and was named MVP of TBL 2017. Singletary is not flashy and he will not draw oohs and ahhs from the crowd, but he does everything at a very high level.

“He has played great for us all year.” Brickman says of Singletary while mentioning his teammates. “[Kruatiwa] is probably the best shooter in Thailand. And [Apiromwilaichai] is one of my favorite players to play with, he gives us energy and great defense.”

“It will be a great opportunity for the club to play in this tournament and learn and grow as a team.”

Mono Vampires: Who They Don’t Have

As much as I would like to make a literal list of all the basketball players in the world that are not with the Mono Vampires, we all know that’s impossible.

This section is just to point out the players that the Vampires are used to having, but won’t be fielding in this particular tournament.

Chitchai Ananti

Ananti is the biggest omission from the FIBA Asia Champions Cup roster and the confusion/frustration surrounding his absence is understandable. Ever since he joined the team, Ananti has been their best local scorer and further more the best local scorer in Thailand. He’s been struggling with more attention put on him in the National Team scene, but still a threat nonetheless.

It’s unfortunate that we won’t be getting to see Ananti play against Asian level competition again. He was also left of the National Team roster when Thailand played in the FIBA Asia Challenge 2016. Sources say that Ananti is not on this roster to nurse some knee injuries that he has picked up during his SEA Games and SEABA duties.

Reggie Johnson

Another big absence (literally) is Reggie Johnson, who has been paired up with Brickman since their Championship winning days in the ABL with the Westports Malaysia Dragons. However, since the FIBA Asia Champions Cup allows only two foreign imports per team, the Mono Vampires could not take the entire trio of Singletary/Brickman/Johnson who had won both TBL/TBSL championships together.

Without Johnson, the main problem for the Mono Vampires will now be their size – or lack thereof. Singletary barely counts as a big man, and the local big men they have (Teerawat Chantachon) are going to be giving up quite some size to the opposition.

“Once I found out that we woudn’t be having a big man import, I knew that I’d have a lot of added responsibility,” Chantachon says. “I was very positive when I heard that as it was going to be a good experience for me to go up against players who are both bigger and more skilled.”

“That’s why I’ve been really staying in shape recently and I hope to get a lot of experience in this tournament.”

Mono Vampires: How They’ll Play

Vampires Head Coach Douglas Marty has always played an offense focused on diving cuts into the paint off-the-ball and I think the same should be expected here even without Reggie Johnson. But the difference is that they can’t be looking forward to slow the game down and wait for their star center to get going anymore.

“We will definitely be one of the smallest teams in the tournament,” Brickman says “So we will have to play fast and play smart basketball.”

With their size disadvantage, the Vampires are going have to move quick on offense into open spaces to get their shots. The might not be much of a problem as they have one of the best passers in both the guard (Brickman) and forward (Singletary) positions. The Vampires will run into some walls trying to score against bigger teams, but I don’t feel like that will be too difficult a task for them to overcome.

What the Vampires should be concerned about is how they are going to contain other teams on defense.

It’s already going to be a nightmare to contain the towering centers of the other teams, but it’ll be ever more difficult playing against taller wings that can see over the defense. The Vampires are going to have to press hard and early to keep the ball away from the basket.

Mono Vampires: Who They’ll Play

The Mono Vampires are placed in Group A along with Petrochimi (Iran), BC Astana (Kazakstan), Chooks-To-Go (Philippines), Sarreyet Ramallah (Palestine). They will be playing according to this schedule:

22 September – 4.45 PM : Mono Vampires ️ VS Sarreyet Ramallah 
24 September – 2.30 PM : Mono Vampires  VS Chooks-To-Go 
25 September – 7.30 PM : Mono Vampires  VS Petrochimi ️
26 September – 4.45 PM : Mono Vampires  VS BC Astana 

The most interesting match up will be against Chooks-To-Go from the Philippines. While not exactly the Philippines National Team, Chooks-To-Go has some similarities.

The team will be headed by National Team Head Coach Chot Reyes. They will have SEA Games 2017 National Team players Kiefer Ravena, Raymar Jose, Carl Bryan Cruz, and Almond Vosotros. With the Mono Vampires being headed by the National Team Assistant Coach and 5 SEA Games 2017 National Team players, this matchup does sort of give off a “Thailand vs Philippines” rematch vibe (even with the presence of the imports).

Chooks-To-Go will also be featuring former NBA Draft prospect Isaiah Austin who the Philippines National Team are eyeing to naturalize.

“I think it’s a mix of good luck in bad fortune,” Samerjai says of the upcoming matchup against Chooks-To-Go. “We have to admit that we’re still a full-step behind the Philippines but because we have been able to play against them more often, we get less intimidated every time we matchup.”

“In the past, we’ve been expecting to get blowout by the hundreds when we play. Now we feel more relaxed and even if we lose, we make sure to at least give the fans a good game.”

“I always wanted to be in the same group with the Philippines team,” Chantachon says. “Because Thai basketball fans are now always going to tune in to watch the Thailand vs. Philippines basketball games and I want them to see how far we’ve improved.”

“For me,” Samerjai says. “I want them to be as annoyed by us as possible.”

Mono Vampires: What to Expect

“My personal target is to just do my best,” Ratdech Kruatiwa says of his expectations. “Since I’ve started playing basketball, I’ve always enjoyed the opportunity to play against better players.”

“From a team perspective, I feel like it’s a good opportunity to play in a major event like this. This is the first time that our club has played in an Asian Club Championship level competition. I’d like to see us win a game. But to look at the bigger picture I want Thailand – both National Team and Club Teams – to keep on participating in these major events because it’s the best for of experience we can get.”

That Thailand is participating in this event is already a victory in itself. These players will be going up against some world class level talent and there can only be things to gained from that exposure. It should be considered a huge success, if they can pull off a victory along the way.

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What do you think?
How far can the Mono Vampires go in the FIBA Asia Champions Cup?
What do you think of the matchup between the Mono Vampires and Chooks-To-Go?

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