Five players from Negros Occidental, including three who sat out the past school-year to comply with residency requirements, will see action in the men's collegiate basketball tournament of the 70th UAAP Season that tips off Saturday at the Araneta Coliseum.

Former West Negros College Mustangs Sivirino "Nonoy" Baclao, John Blargs Alisbo and Sunny Abaring will part ways in the coming season with Baclao donning the Ateneo De Manila University jersey and Alisbo and Abaring playing for Far Eastern University,

The trio was placed in the freezer last year to follow a UAAP rule that requires transferees to have a one-year residence before being allowed to play.

Also playing this year is Roel Hugnatan and Leo Canuday, who are back to spearhead the campaign of Adamson University. Hugnatan and Canuday played high school ball at Iloilo Central Commercial High School.

Canuday suffered a nasty elbow injury last year, which took six months to completely heal.

Now, the St. John's Institute alumni is expected to play a major role for the Falcons this year, along with Hugnatan, who has been tabbed to fill the dent left by center Ken Bono, who will apply for the PBA Draft.

The 6-foot-4 Baclao told the DAILY STAR that he was part of the Ateneo quintet that flew to the United States and Canada to train from May 19 to June 3 in preparation for the coming season.

The first part of the trip was in a basketball camp in Las Vegas, before we traveled to Vancouver to play pickup games against taller players based in the city, Baclao said.

His former teammates, Alisbo and Abaring were part of the FEU squad that placed second in the Nike Summer League last month, losing to De La Salle University in the finals.

The three-ex Mustangs were part of the powerhouse WNC quintet that enjoyed tremendous success during the 2005-2006 season.

During that school-year, WNC ruled the NOPSSCEA tournament for the seventh straight year and won two national crowns --- the 2005 University Games in Bacolod City and the 2006 National Inter-Collegiate title in Bicol.

In the women's tournament, Marichu Bacaro and Remia Buenacosa will be at the forefront of the University of Sto. Tomas bid for back-to-back crowns.

Bacaro was adjudged as the tournament MVP last year, while Buenacosa was selected to the mythical five.

Basketball scout Dexter Dy said there is no player from Negros Occidental seeing action in the NCAA, after Philippine Christian University, which has Escalante-born Joemel Chien in its line-up, was suspended for a year for fielding ineligible players in last year's high school tournament.

But there are local players seeing action in the juniors' tournament. They are former WNC Baby Mustang Jan Michael Noble, who plays center for Letran College and recently led the school to a famous win against defending champion San Sebastian.

San Beda has L.A. Revilla, formerly of the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos and Leeward Lobaton from Colegio de San Agustin-Bacolod.*CPT

back to top

Local cagers to see action in UAAP tilt
Long-term plan for softbelles mulled
Late-game collapse sinks RP five anew
BUSG meet set