KT head coach Song Young-jin of the professional basketball team Suwon KT checked foreign player Kofi Coburn’s record after the game against Seoul Samsung on Thursday and was overwhelmed with admiration.
KT defeated Samsung 90-87 in an away game of the 2023-2024 regular season at Jamsil Indoor Gymnasium in Seoul that afternoon.
A 30-point third quarter gave KT an easy victory, but a late rally by Samsung, which rallied around 6-foot-9 center Coburn, kept the game close.
Coburn had a record-breaking performance with 39 points and 19 rebounds, but KT’s free throws with just over two minutes to go sealed the win.
In the postgame press conference, Song revealed that the plan was to allow Coburn to score some points under the basket.
He then checked the scoreboard, and was momentarily speechless.
His 39 points and 19 rebounds were impressive, but he also saw that Coburn shot a whopping 73 percent from the field.
With Coburn dominating under the basket, Samsung grabbed 50 rebounds. KT had 21 more.
Even after seeing the numbers, Song reflected that they did a good job defending Coburn.
“(Coburn) sometimes spilled the ball,” Song said, “and even if we gave him something to work with, we did a good job on the other end. We also forced a few mistakes, so I think that’s encouraging.”
The idea is that keeping Coburn in check was the best defense KT could show.
With Song’s predominant use of foreign forward Paris Bass, the defense of Coburn fell to Korean big men Ha Yoon-ki and Lee Doo-won.
Playing under the basket, Ha was unable to avoid a five-foul ejection with just over five minutes left in the game.
Instead, Lee Doo-won held off Coburn until the final buzzer to preserve the win.
Song, who, like both players, was a “homegrown big man” who was the top pick in the rookie draft and played 15 years in professional basketball, said he has his own plans to develop them.
“Yoon-ki has a better understanding of the offense because of his experience with the national team. “Especially Yoon Ki, we want to improve his stats so that he can handle one-on-one offense in the future,” Song said. 먹튀검증