PBA offers 6 days per week of games

OSAKA – Fans will get a healthy dose of PBA action with six days a week of games in the Governors’ Cup starting Aug. 18 to open the league’s 49th season. The PBA Board of Governors approved the schedule presented by commissioner Willie Marcial at the annual planning session held here last weekend.

There will be 60 games to be played in the eliminations, 10 for each team which faces groupmates twice. One group is made up of San Miguel Beer, Ginebra, Rain or Shine, NLEX, Phoenix and Blackwater while the other is composed of Meralco, Magnolia, TNT, NorthPort, Terrafirma and Converge. Deputy commissioner Eric Castro said the Z system was used to determine group composition, ranking the teams according to order of finish last season based on 40 percent of the Commissioner’s Cup and 60 percent of the Philippine Cup. After playing 10 games, the top four teams in each group advance to the quarterfinals featuring four best-of-five cross-pairing series. Winners move on to the best-of-seven semis and the finals will also be a best-of-seven affair. Each team will enlist an import with a height limit of 6-6.

The eliminations will end on Sept. 23. Games will be staged every day, except Monday, during the week. The conference will be wrapped up by Nov. 17 at the latest to make way for the FIBA Asia Cup qualifying window where Gilas meets New Zealand on Nov. 21 and Hong Kong on Nov. 24, both at home. Then, the Commissioner’s Cup will begin on Nov. 27, also taking a break during the next FIBA Asia Cup qualifying window where Gilas tackles Chinese-Taipei on Feb. 20 and New Zealand on Feb. 23, both on the road. Talks are ongoing for either Hong Kong Eastern or Singapore Slingers to see action in the Commissioner’s Cup as a guest team on a home-and-away basis. Marcial said it is still to be determined if teams will play one or two imports of unlimited height.

Marcial noted the Board has also approved the participation of San Miguel Beer and Meralco in the coming EASL season which starts Oct. 2. Castro said the Commissioner’s Cup schedule will be tweaked to allow the Beermen and Bolts to play in EASL. They see action at home on Oct. 2, away on Oct. 16 and back home on Oct. 30. Teams play six games in the EASL eliminations then the top two placers of two groups advance to the Final Four. San Miguel is bracketed with Japan B-League champion Hiroshima, Korean runner-up Suwon and Taiwan P.League runner-up Taoyuan. Meralco is in the other group with Japan B-League runner-up Ryukyu, Korean champion Busan and Taiwan P.League champion New Taipei. The third conference or Philippine Cup will start in March and end in July. The All-Star Weekend will be on April 11-13 in Davao.