Depleted RP team remains confident

Minus four key players, a leading official of the RP men’s basketball team expressed optimism of the Filipinos doing good in the South East Asian Basketball Association (SEABA) tournament that begins two weeks from now in Malaysia.

Danny Francisco, assistant team manager of the Cebuana Lhuillier-backed nationals, said the squad is ready and raring to go despite missing the services of stalwarts James Yap, Paul Artadi, Wesley Gonzales and Rich Alvarez.

"The prospect looks good. We’re quite confident going to Malaysia. We’re very much prepared for it," said the former Ateneo Eagle big man in the PSA Forum at the Manila Pavilion yesterday.

The Aug. 17-21 event, a pre-qualifying tournament to the Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) championship to be held in Harbin, China next month, was originally scheduled in Cebu, but lack of sponsors forced organizers to stage it instead in Malaysia.

Initially, Yap and Co. were supposed to go with the team, but officials of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP), where all four players are seeing action, didn’t allow them to play as the league had previously committed them only to the nationals’ participation in the ABC and Southeast Asian Games this December.

Although only the names of the four players are being repeatedly mentioned, the ban in effect also covers other cagers from the UAAP who are included in the 23-man RP team pool — Alwyn Espiritu and Don Villamin of Santo Tomas and Far Eastern U’s Gerard Jones and Mark Isip.