PBL pool formed for SEABA

The Philippine Basketball League, tasked to take over the national squad competing in next month’s Southeast Asia Basketball Association (SEABA) men’s championship following the disbandment of the original team, yesterday named 18 players who will form a pool of aspirants for the event.

And all but one of the cagers who have been tapped for the SEABA tournament slated April 2-9 here appeared in the pool’s first workout at the RFM gym.

PBL commissioner Chino Trinidad tapped Welcoat mentor Junel Baculi as head coach with Shark’s Leo Austria and Montana’s Leo Isaac as assistant coaches before eventually naming the best talents in the league to spearhead the pool.

They were Welcoat’s Yancy de Ocampo, Jojo Manalo, Ren Ren Ritualo, and Eugene Tan, Shark’s Rysal Castro, Chester Tolomia, Warren Ybañez, Michael Robinson and Gilbert Malabanan, Blu Sun Power’s Ernesto Billiones, Edwin Bacani, Marlon Legaspi and Eric Dela Cuesta, Ateneo-Pioneer Insurance’s Enrico Villanueva, Rainer Sison and Montana’s Jacques Gottenbos and Gilbert