■ AS CESAFI BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT STARTS, EVERYBODY WANTS TO GET THE GREEN LANCERS
UV coach Gary Cortes says team has been training hard while Yayoy Alcoseba of UC says the rest of the teams will try to stop UV
The University of the Visayas (UV) Green Lancers are aiming for a third straight championship in collegiate basketball in the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. tournament, which will kick on on Saturday. While they recently lost a center and a starting point guard because of injuries, UV head coach Gary Cortes remains confident the team’s chances of a three-peat are good. “We trained hard. We never trained this hard before,” Cortes said. “We started training after winning the championship.” A Cesafi official believes that UV and the University of Cebu Webmasters are the top contenders this year, but don’t be surprised if the other teams disagree.
A huge target is on the back of defending collegiate champion University of the Visayas (UV) Green Lancers as they gun for their third straight championship in the 18th Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) basketball tournament.
UV head coach Gary Cortes feels that his team’s chances of a three-peat all depends on how their competition plays this season.
“It will be based on the performance of our opponents. If they will play badly, then we’ll surely get our three-peat,” Cortes said yesterday in the official presser for the Cesafi season.”A lot of our players have injuries, we are short of players. But we trained hard. We never trained this hard before. We started training after winning the championship. I hope for a grand slam. I hope some of the coaches will grant us our wish.”
UV lost center Lassina Coulibaly in the preseason tournament to a knee injury and replaced him with Bassieru Sackor, who helped the Green Lancers win two titles. UV also lost starting point guard Sheldon Gahi to a broken foot.
Last year’s runner-up, University of Cebu (UC) Webmasters, however, hopes that either they or the other teams--Southwestern University (SWU) Cobras, University of San Carlos (USC) Warriors, University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) Panthers, University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) Jaguars and Cebu Institute of Technology-University (CIT-U) Wildcats--will finally put an end to UV’s dominance.
“Actually, UV is the University of Basketball,” UC head coach Yayoy Alcoseba replied in jest to Cortes’ statement. “UV is always a championship team. They’re looking for a grand slam and the six of us (teams) must stop them from getting a grand slam.”
Cesafi Commissioner Felix Tiukinhoy thinks that UV and UC are still the top two contenders to win the crown this year. However, he also feels that some of the other teams will be surprise contenders.
“In my opinion, it’s still between UV and UC. USPF and USC are also there and I hope that USJ-R can be a dark horse. In the high school side, it will be very competitive. It’ll be anybody’s game,” he said.
The Cesafi basketball tournament kicks off this Saturday in the Cebu Coliseum. There will be an opening ceremony and the Ms. Cesafi competition followed by two games between SWU and CIT-U in both the high school and collegiate divisions. /