RP 5 leaves for Tehran, opens bid versus host

The SMC-Philippine team is taking on the host country’s SABA squad to start its campaign in the nine-nation 18th FIBA-Asia Champions Cup in Tehran, Iran Sunday.

The Nationals are also to battle Kazakhstan’s Astana Tigers, Syria’s Al Jalaa and Bahrain’s Al Manama in Group B play in the preliminary round. One of the five teams in this group will be out after the prelims.

In Group A, four teams in Lebanon’s Blue Stars, Qatar’s Al Rayvan, India’s Young Cagers and Kuwait’s Al Qadsia will only fight for placings in the knockout quarterfinals on May 8.

It will be knockout games all the way to the finals in this tournament which the Philippines has won four times in the past through Northern Cement in 1984, Swift-PABL in 1988, PBL-Andok’s in 1995 and Hapee Toothpaste in 1996.

The Nationals leave today save for Enrico Villanueva who is to follow the team after their game with San Miguel Beer in Cebu tomorrow.

Villanueva is raring to play for the national team although he suffered back spasm in the Red Bull-Sta. Lucia game Wednesday.

"The doctors said it’s muscle fatigue since I’m attending two practices a day (with Red Bull and with the RP team)," Villanueva told The STAR.

Saying his team’s stint in the FIBA-Asia Champions Cup is a learning experinece, coach Chot Reyes said he’ll try some combinations to keep everybody sharp for the tougher task ahead.

The Iran tourney serves as the squad’s final tune-up for the SEABA men’s championship in Rachaburi, Thailand on May 24-28.

"We’ll go out and try to win the tournament, but that’s not the ultimate objective, especially with the other teams using two imports of unlimited height each. We’ll continue playing as a team, play everybody, give everyone minutes," said Reyes.

The SEABA joust is the qualifying tournament for the FIBA-Asia men’s championship in Tokushima, Japan, in July that in turn serves as a qualifying event for next year’s Beijing Olympics – the ultimate goal of Reyes and his troops.

Reyes said his main goal for the Tehran event is for his players to continue improving as a team.

"Don’t get me wrong. We’ll go all out, but not at the expense of learning and improving as a team," he said.