Nat’l students caging returns to Cebu

Cebu will host the Basketball Association of the Philippines’ National Inter-Collegiate and Inter-Secondary Basketball Championships, also known as the National Students Championship, slated Feb. 26 to March 3 at the Cebu City Coliseum.

“We’re happy to announce that this prestigious event will be hosted by Cebu,” said BAP president Prospero “Butch” Pichay, Jr. in yesterday’s media launch at the Aloha Restaurant in Manila.

Host Lorenzo Sy, the BAP vice president from the Visayas, said they would make it a point to make the weeklong event an exciting and memorable one.

“We will make sure of it because this is the first time since 1996 that we’re hosting this big event,” said Sy. “Also, security will not be problem because we’ll be deploying 200 uniformed policemen at the venue.”

The tournament also stakes four berths to the Asian Universities Basketball Championship.

The event also features the country’s best collegiate teams although the top schools from both the UAAP and NCAA are not participating.

Back-to-back NCAA champion San Beda, reigning UAAP titlist De La Salle, University of the East, Ateneo de Manila, Jose Rizal and Far Eastern U are among the teams that have indicated they will not be participating.

“We haven’t received any invitation from them,” said coaches Frankie Lim of San Beda and Ariel Vanguardia of Jose Rizal.

“No we will not participate,” said Ateneo board representative Ricky Palou.

“No. We will support SBP tournaments,” said another board member Anton Montinola of FEU.

Bren Perez, also a board member of UE, said they might skip the event since they will participate in a number of tournaments like the Fr. Martin Cup and the Home-and-Away games.

Pichay said all the schools are invited but they must undergo the regional qualifiers to make it to the finals.