CURRENT NCAA chairman Fr. Victor Calvo, O.P. believes the league policy board will be willing to grant the request of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas to suspend some of its games next season to give way to the country’s hosting of the FIBA-Asia Men’s Basketball Championship.
No formal request has yet been submitted by the SBP regarding the matter, but the Dominican priest, who is also Letran’s athletic director, is very positive the NCAA board will cooperate with the request from the country’s governing body for the sport.
“No info as of now. But if it’s good for Philippine basketball, it’s possible,” Calvo replied in a text message sent Monday night.
College of St. Benilde will be the Season 89 host of the country’s oldest collegiate league.
SBP president Manny V. Pangilinan said in a special press conference Friday formally announcing the country’s hosting of the world basketball championship qualifier that the body will ask the two top collegiate leagues in the UAAP and NCAA to call off some of its games during the course of the FIBA-Asia meet.
The event – which the Philippines last hosted four decades ago – is set during the first two weeks of August and will definitely run head-on with the NCAA schedule which is being played every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday.
Both the NCAA and UAAP are major stakeholders in the SBP.
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