RP cage tryouts shift to Luzon

Fresh from a one-week break after a warmly-received eight-leg tour of Mindanao and the Visayas, the Cebuana Lhuillier Tryouts ng Bayan resumes its search for future material for the national basketball team, this time in Luzon.

University of Baguio will host the combined tryouts and basketball clinic conducted by the RP team coaching staff headed by Dong Vergeire and Boyzie Zamar together with national players Celino Cruz, Ricky Calimag, Dennis Madrid, and Richie Melencio. The tryouts will start at 2 p.m.

"If we are to base it on our experience in Mindanao and the Visayas, then we can expect again a lot of local basketball talents to join the tryouts, overall, we already had over 500 young players who showed their wares in the previous legs," said Vergeire, referring to the earlier tryouts held in Cagayan de Oro, Davao City, Sultan Kudarat, Iloilo, Bacolod, Dumaguete, Cebu City, and Tacloban.

And even as the majority of the potential talents they spotted were below 20 years old and will be referred to the BAP’s Under-20 program of coach Joe Lipa, Zamar pointed out that there are several solid candidates for the men’s team like Davao’s 6’9 Samigue Emman, and a few from Cebu, the hotbed of basketball in the Visayas.

From Baguio, the coaching staff and national players will go to Pangasinan. followed by Tarlac and Pampanga covering the northern Luzon area, while on March 22, the tryouts start its Southern Luzon search in Albay and will also be held in Lucena, Batangas, Laguna, and Cavite.

"We will be holding final try-outs for those who made it in our short list for Mindanao, Visayas, and Mindanao and from there, we will select those who will be joining the final tryouts in Metro Manila. We will hold a separate one-week long Metro Manila tryouts because we expect the biggest number of aspirants from this area," added Vergeire.

On his part, Cebuana Lhuillier EVP-GM Jean Henri Lhuillier, who is bankrolling the long-term national tryouts expressed the hope that with the recent POC recognition of the BAP, all the parties involved in basketball can get together and work on a joint plan to revive the glory years of the Philippines in Asian basketball, referring to the likes of the PBA, the PBL, the school leagues, and the BAPI to whom he extended a welcome hand.