Shinshu Brave Warriors

The Shinshu Brave Warriors is a professional basketball team that competes in the first division of the Japanese B.League.^[1] The team was formed in 2011 and as of the 2016–17 season played in the Central Division (Naka-chiku) of the B2 League. The team name comes from a desire to show the tradition of the Nagano prefecture, formerly called Shinshu. And to liken the players to the ninja and samurai warriors who fought and trained in the area in times past. Their official home is in Chikuma City, just south of the prefectural capital of Nagano City, however games are sometimes played in Nagano itself or in other nearby cities such as Matsumoto.

Shinshu Brave Warriors
Conference	Central
Division	1st
Leagues	B.League
Founded	2011; 14 years ago (2011)
Arena	White Ring (arena)
Capacity	7,000
Location	Chikuma, Nagano
Head coach	Michael Katsuhisa
Website	www.b-warriors.net
Home Away 3rd

Team Logo

The team logo uses three colours; blue (called Warrior Blue), silver (called Japan Alps Silver) and yellow (called Obasute Moon Yellow). It shows the full name of the team with a depiction of the Japanese Alps mountain range (which runs through Nagano) and a basketball shown as a moon coming over the mountains.

Mascot

The team mascot is a bear like creature called "Burea". When pronounced sound like blair or blayer. It probably comes from a combination of Brave and Warriors; Bra-ior. Japanese tend to pronounce the -er as a long a when using English words. His design includes white for the winter snow, crescent moons for eyes and an apple for the nose (Nagano is known for its apples).^[2]

Roster

Shinshu Brave Warriors roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name Ht. Age F 3 Eliet Donley 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) 28 – (1996-12-11)11 December 1996 F 4 Taichi Kodama 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) 25 – (2000-06-17)17 June 2000 G 5 Fuki Yamamoto 1.77 m (5 ft 10 in) 27 – (1998-08-09)9 August 1998 F 7 Stanton Kidd 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) 33 – (1992-03-18)18 March 1992 G 11 Kaito Ishikawa 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in) 34 – (1990-11-30)30 November 1990 G 12 Louis Kurihara 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) 28 – (1996-11-03)3 November 1996 F 13 Matthew Aquino 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) 28 – (1996-09-28)28 September 1996 G 14 Kyosuke Hoshino 1.84 m (6 ft 0 in) 26 – (1999-06-01)1 June 1999 F 21 Deon Thompson 2.04 m (6 ft 8 in) 36 – (1988-09-16)16 September 1988 G 30 Takumi Simon 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) 25 – (2000-03-10)10 March 2000 F 31 Kazuya Mitsui 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) 31 – (1994-06-02)2 June 1994 G 46 Shusuke Ikuhara 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in) 31 – (1994-05-24)24 May 1994 C 50 Wayne Marshall 2.11 m (6 ft 11 in) 39 – (1986-01-07)7 January 1986 PF Mike Daum 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) 29 – (1995-10-30)30 October 1995	Head coach Michael Katsuhisa Assistant coach(es) Satoshi Hisayama [ja] Yusuke Inoue [ja] Legend (C) Team captain Injured Roster Updated: 23 January 2023

Notable players

• Jamal Boykin
• Suleiman Braimoh
• Marcus Cousin
• Jaye Crockett
• Josh Dollard
• Xavier Gibson
• Tyler Hughes ^[it]
• Terrence Jennings ^[es]
• Jeroen van der List
• Anthony McHenry
• Chad Posthumus
• Derek Raivio
• Lee Roberts
• Patrick Sanders
• Terrence Shannon ^[it]
• Nick Washburn ^[es]
• DeVaughn Washington

Coaches

• Motofumi Aoki
• Takatoshi Ishibashi
• Ryuji Kawai
• Koju Munakata
• Ryutaro Onodera
• Michael Katsuhisa

Arenas

• Kotobuki Arena Chikuma
• Chikuma City Togura Gymnasium
• Matsumoto City Gymnasium
• White Ring
• Big Hat