By Les Tan/Red Sports

challenge series singapore slingers vs san miguel beermen

How will 65kg local boy Hong Wei Jian fare against 103kg Lonnie Jones of the Barracudas? (Photo © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports file photo)

I’ve been scouring the internet for information about the players for the ASEAN Basketball League (verdict – very hard to find). I’ve managed to get a partial list and stuck it up on the Red Hoops site.

Some of the player statistics are mind boggling.

This Sunday, the Brunei Barracudas are fielding two Americans and one of them, Lonnie P. Jones, is 211cm tall and weighs 103kg. I want to see a man that tall and that heavy jump and ask him questions like: “Does it snow up there?”

I’m so used to seeing the average 1.8m basketball player in Singapore that this is going to be a visual treat.

Jones’ teammate isn’t that much smaller either. Fellow American Mike Pilgrim stands just 5cm shorter at 206cm. I can’t find his weight yet. Maybe I’ll bring my Ikea weighing machine. I hope he doesn’t break it because he looks BIG in pictures.

The whole starting five for the Barracudas will be imports – three Filipinos (Francis Adriano, Celedon Camaso and Leonidas Avenido) and the two Americans. They will go up against our starting five of four imports (Kyle Jeffers, Michael LeBlanc, Marcus Ng, Al Vergara) and one Singaporean (probably Hong Wei Jian).

The Barrcudas only had two pre-season games against not so credible opponents while the Slingers have had four games against three PBA teams and the Smart Gilas Pilipinas, the national development team of the Philippines. The coach of the Barracudas, Filipino Geraldo Bong Ramos, only joined the team in the middle of September.

Given how the roster is structured – five imports and seven locals – the coach also can’t rely totally on his imports and is expecting the local Bruneians to do their part.

"They may lack some of the basics that other teams have but they have tried their utmost best in the short space of time that we had and they have applied themselves the best they can.

"Their role is very important. All I ask of them is to provide me quality minutes with some good defense and hustle. If they can do that then I think we will be in very good shape," said the Filipino coach.

So most are expecting the Barracudas to go into this game as underdogs.

As for me, I just want to see what this man-mountain Lonnie P. Jones looks like.

And I hope the 103kg Jones doesn’t accidentally land on our 65kg Hong Wei Jian.

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