Since the start of the 2010-11 season, the league's growth in Tohoku has been significant.

Credit the league office for recognizing that Tohoku had untapped potential. (It was a region primarily ignored by the old JBL.)

The Akita Northern Happinets' arrival that autumn was celebrated enthusiastically within the prefecture. For example, on Oct. 15, 2010, a Friday, the night before the team's first-ever home game, decades-old TV footage included game highlights of native son Makoto Hasegawa, the current head coach, aired on a local television news program, the star guard competing in high school and college tournaments. This was Akita, so the game highlights caused people to stop in the middle of a busy Akita Station and congregate around a big-screen TV to check out the highlights.

Hasegawa, then 39, was, after all, a former star for the beloved Noshiro Technical High School basketball powerhouse team. His return home to play out the final years of his pro career also signaled the floodgates had opened for other expansion franchises in the region, but it wasn't clear how rapid the region's transformation as a basketball-rich landscape would become.

The Iwate Big Bulls joined the fledgling circuit in 2011, the Aomori Wat's came on board in 2013 and the Fukushima Firebonds played their first regular-season game on Oct. 4.

The Sendai 89ers were one of six flagship teams to play during the bj-league's inaugural 2005-06 season. But now they are not the "only" team up north.

Now, there's a unique opportunity for the Tohoku teams to establish a strong tradition together as rivals and competitors.

Last season provided a good glimpse of this with Akita (40-12), Iwate (40-12) and Aomori (27-25) advancing the Eastern Conference playoffs and raising the bar for future teams from the region.

League accolade: Iwate Big Bulls forward Scootie Randall had 24- and 25-point performances last weekend as his team swept the host Gunma Crane Thunders. The Temple University product is the Lawson/Ponta Weekly MVP, it was announced Tuesday.

In his 24-point outing on Saturday, Randall also grabbed 11 rebounds and sank 8 of 11 free throws. A day later, he went 12-for-13 at the foul line to produce nearly half of his point total, while adding 10 rebounds and four assists.

Through six games, Randall is averaging 22.8 points, shooting 5.65 percent from 2-point range and 85.4 percent from the line for the Big Bulls (5-1), who have won four straight games.

Community involvement: Shiga Lakestars coach Koto Toyama, forward Jeff Parmer and guard Masahiro Kano visited the Shiga Medical Center for Children on Wednesday night.

It was an opportunity for the Lakestars trio to offer encouragement to about 35 hospital patients, and a reminder that sports teams can make a difference away from their sporting venues.

Parmer, a Florida Atlantic University alum, described it as "a humbling visit" on his Facebook page. He added: "To see the smile on those children's faces along with their parents put everything into perspective. Count your blessings and be thankful for what you have . . . "

Scoring woes: For a team to repeatedly fail to reach 60 points in a 40-minute pro basketball game is a cause of concern for any head coach.

The Shimane Susanoo Magic are 0-6 to open the season, and coach Reggie Hanson's squad has been plagued by low scoring. The Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix beat the host Magic 70-49 on Oct. 11. Last weekend, the Ryukyu Golden Kings defeated Shimane 67-53 and 62-52 in Okinawa.

"We are averaging 18 turnovers per game," Hanson told The Japan Times late Wednesday evening. "Which means we are getting 18 less offensive possessions per game and giving our opponents 18 more offensive possessions per game. But the last two games we played against Okinawa we only averaged 13 turnovers per game. That is a good sign. So we have to cut down our turnovers to be able to take advantage of every offensive possession."

Coming off an 11-41 season, Hanson is preaching patience for the franchise, noting it is "in rebuilding mode."

"The Shimane team fell to the bottom of the bj-league last season," he added. "No matter what league you are in whether it's the NBA, NFL, MLB or in the college conferences if a team drops from the middle of their league to the bottom in one year, the climb back up is not a quick one because you are starting all over again.

"We have nine new players. I have a totally new staff that does not have much experience so I have to develop them at the same time that I am developing the team.

"So it is a process. But I will say this, I am proud of my players. They have positive attitudes and are working very hard every day to become a better team and develop better chemistry. We are a much better team now than we were during the pre-season games. It is still early and we have a lot of games left to play."

Hanson said his team's defense has been solid, but was quick to add, "we have to put together a 40-minute game.

"We play well in spurts for 30-33 minutes right now. Against Okinawa, we put ourselves in position to have a chance to win both games," he said.

"In the first game, we made a couple defensive rotation mistakes late in the game that gave them some 3-point shots that was hard to recover from. But in the end Okinawa won the game from the FT line and offensive rebounding. They only had two more total field goals than us.

"In the second game, in the third quarter we held them to only three points the last four minutes of the quarter. We missed seven layups right at the rim in that quarter that would have put us within three at the end of that quarter. We missed another three layups in the fourth. ... The thing about Okinawa is they are not going to beat themselves. You have to play a smart game on both ends to beat them. That's why they are the defending champions."

Weekend schedule: Twenty teams are in action on Saturday and Sunday. Here's the docket: Akita vs. Gunma, Sendai vs. Saitama, Niigata vs. Fukushima, Toyama vs. Shinshu, Tokyo vs. Aomori, Hamamatsu vs. Fukuoka, Kyoto vs. Ryukyu, Osaka vs. Shimane, Oita vs. Takamatsu and Yokohama vs. Iwate.

Closing commentary: Three weeks of games are in the books and as of 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, the bj-league website still had not posted teams' won-loss records, conference standings and individual stat leaders yet this season. This reflects poorly on league management and what it prioritizes.

This is basic information that should be released by the league office as soon as possible, not on some arbitrary date weeks after the season starts.

For a league with a public relations department that seems to have no sense of urgency for anything but trivial matters and gimmicks, this is a stunning oversight.