" This is definitely a different team compared to my past teams but it is also very competitive," said Fash coach Junel Baculi.
The six were chosen from a big group of aspirants who underwent rigid tryouts conducted by the coaching staff. Mike Bravo, Clarence Cole and Mark Saquilayan made the cut but were later dropped from the list.
Oreta and Mendoza were picked from Sunkist-University of Santo Tomas and Napa from Viva Mineral Water. Omiping, Macapagal and Cordero, for their part, didn’t play for any team last conference.
Baculi said the six would be a great help to a team which lost the bulk of its players either to the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) or newcomer Lee Pipes-Ateneo in the pre-season.
Remnants of the Platinum Cup champion team were Eugene Tan, Joel Dualan, Francis Mercado, Ryan Dy and Clark Moore.
Meanwhile, Welcoat Paints will formally welcome its latest additions when it holds a fans day on Saturday at the Pasig Sports Center.
Ex-pro recruits Chester Tolomia and Marvin Ortiguerra and Dino Aldeguer, Dominic Uy and Fil-Am guard Donald Dulay will join Jojo Tangkay, JR Reyes, Ariel Capus, Melvin Manaclay, Christian Gueverra and Rodel Celo in the team seeing action this conference tentatively set on March 27.
Aldeguer and Uy, formerly of ICTSI La Salle, were picked from the dispersal draft while Dulay came from the aspirants camp held last week at the Makati Coliseum.
They are expected to step in the absence of Paul Artadi, James Yap, Marc Pingris, Ervin Sotto, Nelbert Omolon, Willie Wilson and Mac Cuan who are now with their respective PBA ballclubs.