PYBL caging kicks off Saturday

The Philippine Youth Basketball League braces for a more exciting second season with a tougher field and more talented faces seeing action in the first Crystal Spring PYBL Title Cup beginning this Saturday at the Makati Coliseum.

Crystal Spring, which backed up Las Piñas College in the successful debut season, is backing the PYBL’s thrust for basketball development.

"Backing up Las Piñas College last season opened our eyes to the big role PYBL initiated for basketball development, that’s why we decided to come in this season as title sponsor," said Crystal Spring owner Raul Panlilio.

Eight teams, including defending champion Boysen-MLQU, have confirmed their participation in the event. The others are University of Assumption, Spring Cooking Oil, Gringo Express-Konica, and newcomers National University, University of the Philippines, Regent Cheeseballs and Whiz Super Oil Treatment which poses a big threat to MLQU’s title-retention bid.

Perry Martinez, the PBL Basketball Operations Chief tasked to handle the league for 25 years old and below, is enthusiastic over PYBL’s second season despite the non-participation of other major players from the NCAA.

"It’s quite unfortunate that teams from the NCAA opted to skip this season until Malacañang lays out its verdict on our appeal against the GAB ruling. Nevertheless, I believe the PYBL’s second conference will be equally exciting, if not better, with the tougher field and the talented fresh faces coming in," said Martinez.