Cage league to pit all collegiate champs

Imagine the 2002 UAAP varsity champion taking on the finest from the Private Schools Athletic Association of Mindanao. Or the emerging NCAA titlist battling the would-be king from the Baguio Educational Athletic League.

Or the winner of the Visayas tournaments clashing with the victors of either the CUSA, NAASCU and UCAA, all from Metro Manila.

In one big tournament sanctioned by the Basketball Association of the Philippines and aired live on television via NBN-4.

Designed to gather the champions of collegiate cage tourneys all over the country and to provide a venue to crown the "best among the best," the Colleges and Universities Basketball Challenge Cup (CUBCC) "Basketball Champions League 2002" kicks off from November 9-25 at the Makati Coliseum.

A concept introduced by former ambassador Danding Cojuangco in 1986 when San Miguel Corporation sponsored the first Inter-Club Invitational Tournament, and later resurrected in 1997 as the Philippine Invitational Collegiate Championship by the Philippine Basketball Foundation Inc., with businessman-sportsman Bong Tan of the Lucio Tan Group of Companies in the forefront, the CUBCC aims to bring into intense competition the 16 top collegiate teams in the country.

"We dream of establishing a basketball league in the collegiate level that will eventually have all existing collegiate associations represented come tournament time," said Joe Lipa, head of the CUBCC organizing committee.

According to Lipa, coach of the home-grown, all-amateur RP-Asian Games team that won the bronze medal in Bangkok in 1986 and now commissioner of the UAAP, the participating leagues include the following: UAAP (2 representatives), NCAA (2), UCAA (1), NAASCU (1), CUSA (1), PRISAA-Mindanao (1), Baguio Educational Athletic League (1), NCAA South (1), Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (2), Negros Occidental private Schools Sports, Cultural and Educational Association (1), Iloilo Schools Athletic Association (1) and two wild card entries from any of the participating leagues.

All games during the elimination round, quarterfinals and semifinals will be knockout affairs, with the No. 1 seed taking on the No. 16, the No. 2 meeting the No. 15 and so forth.

The top two teams then dispute the CUBCC Basketball Champions League 2002 championship in a best-of-three title showdown.

Seeding shall be determined by the Office of the CUBCC Commissioner, participating coaches, sports writers, players and the viewing public.