Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
A FAMILIAR face is at the reins of Easyway for this year's YOU.C1000 Cup.
Choo Yung Jian, a former national point guard, will be spearheading the team at the June 20 - July 18 competition.
He has set some high expectations and hopes to follow through.
"Easyway's expectation as always is to win the championship," said Choo in an interview with BruSports News.
"We have to aim high and shoot for the stars," he added.
The majority of the squad is made up of players that represented Brunei at the recently concluded Borneo Cup.
Jayden Chen, Wong Lih Shean, Devon Lim, Lim Liang Wei, Jake Chong, Jonathan Lim, Chan Yung Ken and Darren Lee all featured for the national side.
Daniel Sim, Kelvin Chai, Terry Wong and Chung Chang Long complete the roster.
"Most of the players have already been training under the national team system so my job here is actually to fine tune how they should approach the game and increase their basketball IQs," said Choo.
"Hopefully this will lead to us winning crucial games when it matters," he added.
Easyway will begin their Group A campaign against contenders TK/CJMM on opening night.
It will be no easy task as the veteran side have bolstered their squad with the addition of Jomarie Corpuz to join the regular duo of Elvin Requintin and Apollo Bibat.
"I wouldn't say it is a bad thing (to play on opening night) because the players on the team have been playing together for a while now so more or less the chemistry and understanding is there," said the 37-year-old, who turns 38 next week.
"But it will be a great advantage to start off with a win," added Choo, who scored the game-winning layup in the 2011 final leading to 'Jian-pion' being coined.
The other two teams in Group A are Peak and Jedstar and Choo expects tough opposition.
"It's been a while since I watched basketball in person but I believe all three teams that we are facing will test us in different ways so we ought to be ready come game time," he said.
When asked on his feelings being on the sidelines instead of on the court, Choo replied: "I haven't let that sink in yet as of now.
"Hopefully the team is able to execute well on how I would approach the game on the court. Just that this time, I will be on the sidelines," concluded the Belait district native.
