Allado's brother in PBL camp

Purefoods forward Don Allado’s kid brother Andrew is no longer a kid and the 6-1 combo guard from NCAA Division III La Sierra University is trying his luck in the PBL this season.

Drew plays nowhere like his big brother who is nine years older because their positions are different but they’ve got the same high-intensity spirit on the floor. Basketball runs in the Allados’ veins as their parents Caloy and Joy were both varsity players.

It was Caloy, a former UP forward, who influenced Drew’s decision to follow in Don’s footsteps. Drew played four years at La Sierra and is now looking forward to strutting his wares in the PBL – and perhaps, later in the PBA. Caloy said Drew plays a lot like Coca-Cola’s Alex Cabagnot.

At La Sierra, Drew took up pre-law studies. Once he’s done playing, Drew plans to become a lawyer.

Drew, 22, was recently diagnosed with dengue but luckily, it was found out early. He’s quickly recovering and his father said he’s now at 60 percent capacity.

Aside from Drew, Caloy brought in two others from overseas to join the PBL rookie camp at Jose Rizal University yesterday. They are 6-3 Marcio Lassiter of NCAA Division I California State at Fullerton and 6-4 Anthony Lao of the University College of the Fraser Valley in Canada. The PBL draft is tentatively scheduled on Nov. 12.

Lao, 24, was born in Aklan and migrated to Canada with his parents, both Filipinos, when he was 10. Lassiter, 22, is a Fil-Am. What Caloy likes about his three prospects is they’re all college graduates, meaning they took their education seriously and now that the studies are over, they’re entirely focused on playing basketball as a career.

Lao averaged 10.2 points and 5.9 rebounds in 22 games for the Fraser Valley Cascades varsity in 2006-07. A highlight was when he scored 23 points, including 11-of-12 free throws, in only 19 minutes off the bench as Fraser Valley beat Trinity Western, 87-80.

Lassiter, 22, averaged 8.9 points and 3.1 rebounds for Fullerton this past season. He played two years for the City College of San Francisco then moved to Fullerton State for his last two seasons of varsity eligibility. Lassiter’s mother Alexandria is Filipina and the Fullerton State website mentioned he is related to Filipino stand-up comedian Joey Guila.

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International boxing referee Bruce McTavish recently attended the 47th annual WBC convention in the Korean resort island of Jeju where he received the Marvin Kohn “Good Fellow” award. “What an honor for our country,” said McTavish, a New Zealand native who has lived in the Philippines for over 30 years.

Kohn was a publicist and deputy commissioner of the New York State Athletic Commission from 1951 to 1989. He died of a stroke in 1994 at the age of 70. Kohn was well-liked in boxing circles. The WBC named its “Good Fellow” award in his honor.

Aside from McTavish’s award, the Philippines figured prominently in other discussions at the convention presided by WBC president Jose Sulaiman. First, Games and Amusements Board (GAB) chairman Eric Buhain received a $9,500 donation from the WBC as a donation to Filipinos who were victimized by typhoons. And second, boxing manager Aljoe Jaro’s protégé Denver Cuello was installed the No. 1 mandatory contender in the 105-pound minimumweight division where the champion is Thailand’s Oleydong Sithsamerchai.

Jaro said Cuello will be next in line for a title crack after Oleydong stakes the crown against Nicaragua’s Juan Palacios in Thailand on Nov. 27. It will be Oleydong’s fourth title defense since wresting the crown from Eagle Kyowa in Japan two years ago. Oleydong, 24, is a southpaw, like Cuello, with a 37-0 record, including 12 KOs.

To warm up for the title shot, Cuello will defend his WBC International minimumweight diadem against Benguet southpaw Mating Kilakil at the Ynares Center on Nov. 27. Cuello, 22, has a record of 17-2-5, with eight KOs. He was initially pencilled to face Thailand’s Lookdiew Sithkruluor on Nov. 21 but Jaro cancelled the match to pick a tougher opponent.

“I wanted a Thai opponent but I was afraid they would send a tuk-tuk driver to just go down without a fight,” said Jaro. “So I picked the GAB’s No. 1 contender Kilakil. I think he’ll put up a better fight against Cuello.”

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The Philippines’ under-16 basketball team, coached by Eric Altamirano, trounced Iran not once but twice at the recent four-way Nokia Invitationals in Cebu and will leave this Sunday to compete in the FIBA-Asia Cadet Championships in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, on Nov. 19-27.

There are 16 teams participating in the Malaysia tournament where the top two finishers will qualify to represent Asia at the inaugural World Under-17 Championships in Hamburg, Germany, on July 2-11 next year.

The FIBA-Asia brackets are as follows: Group A – China, Myanmar, India, Jordan. Group B – Kazakhstan, Bahrain, Japan, Philippines. Group C – Korea, Singapore, Syria, Kuwait. Group D – Chinese-Taipei, Thailand, Iran, Malaysia.

Altamirano’s squad stormed back from 16 points down to upset Iran, 88-83, in the Nokia preliminaries then repeated over the back-to-back reigning Asian champion, 77-57, in the finals.

“Coach Eric exposed the ballhandling weakness of the taller and bigger Iranians while showing the quickness, versatility and work ethic of our 16-and-under team,” said SBP executive director Noli Eala. Former PBA star Bong Ravena’s son Kiefer of Ateneo was named MVP and joined Cris Tolomia of FEU on the Mythical First Team.

Six-time PBA Best Import awardee Bobby Parks’ son Ray-Ray, whose mother is Filipina, was supposed to beef up the Philippine team but was not excused from school in the US.

Other players on the team are Von Pessumal, Paolo Romero, Cederick Labing-Isa, Kevin Ferrer, Jeron Teng (former PBA cager Alvin’s son), Dan Sara, Raf Nayve, Angelo Alolino, Michael Pate, Rene Sta. Maria, Emmanuel Bonleon, Gabriel Reyes, Jeoff Javillonar, Prince Laperal and Nestor Bantayan.

Postscript. As of 4 p.m. last Monday, there were 1,302 downloads of philstar.com’s inaugural podcast featuring a 77-minute in-depth primer on the Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto fight this weekend. In all, the website had 4,042 hits or page visits from morning up to that point. It was a remarkable reception to philstar.com’s latest cyberspace innovation considering the podcast was made available only starting midnight that day. Numbers are expected to soar until the podcast ends on Saturday, the eve of the fight.