NCBL launches program with 4-team tourney March 1

MANILA, Philippines - The National Collegiate Basketball League, billing itself as an alternative collegiate cage league with an initial four-school membership, stages  its founding tournament March 1 at the TIP Gym.

The home-and-away varsity league, espousing the values of sportsmanship and fair play more than anything else, will be unveiled with a short introductory tournament participated in by Centro Escolar University, Trinity University of Asia, Don Bosco Technical College and initial host Technological Institute of the Philippines.

The TIP Engineers take on the Don Bosco Gray Wolves while the TUA Stallions collide with the CEU Scorpions on opening day.

The four teams figure in a one-round-robin ranking phase on March 1, 5 and 8. The semifinals will then pit the top team against No. 4 and the No. 2 against the No. 3. The winners clash in the finale with the higher-ranked team enjoying the home-court advantage.

“This competition is designed to showcase the NCBL’s efforts to hold college basketball in a new way,” said tournament director Totie Andes during the media launch of the event at TIP’s conference center yesterday.

“When we say ‘league without limits,’ we mean we aren’t bound by the traditional, established way of doing collegiate basketball. We have taken steps to tackle the problems of eligibility, violence and others that have hurt college basketball’s image the past few years,” said founding organizer Sebastian “Potit” de Vera of TIP.

The four schools, in partnership with Athletes in Action, have held orientation meetings with each member’s athletics department to try to inculcate “valuing the big picture instead of merely winning games”, according to the organizers.

“In the NCBL’s home-and-away format, visiting teams are treated as welcome guests, not hostile invaders,” said Aldes.

“Several other schools from as far as Cavite, Pampanga and Batangas have expressed interest to join, but they opted to wait until the big tournament opens in June,” Aldes added.

Aldes mentioned Polytechnic University of the Philippines and University of Batangas as among the interested schools.

They look forward to having a full-blown competition in the first semester of the next school year, and are studying the possibility of holding a commercial league with the same concept in the second semester.

Also a member of NAASCU with exposure in the PBA D-League, Centro Escolar U, under coach Egay Macaraya, is considered the team to beat in the inaugural tourney.

The four competing schools have a combined student population of about 45,000.