A three-peat in the Jones Cup may be easier said than done.
Strong Group Athletics head coach Charles Tiu expects a difficult road ahead for his squad as they aim to win three championships in a row.
‘I think this year, the tournament’s much tougher. There’s a Korean team also, you got the Jordan national team, UC Irvine, the college team with the 7’9′ dude. So, interesting pool of teams ngayon,’ Tiu, also the head coach of the Phoenix Fuel Masters in the PBA, said.
‘Tapos yung format, it’s a different format, we’re in groups of four. Our group’s a bit of a tougher group because we have Taiwan national team, we have Korea, the DB Promy team, and then yung Japan team. So, tougher pero still exciting. We should be up for the task and hopefully we can compete and represent the country well,’ he added.
This year’s team has a few holdovers from the last champion team – Titing Manalili, DJ Fenner, Dave Ildefonso and Tajuan Agee – to go with new additions Shaun Ildefonso, Matthew Wright, William Navarro, Isaiah Pineiro, Malick Diouf, Remy Martin and Boban Marjanovic. Allen Liwag will be rested from the tournament due to an injury.
‘The guys are competitors. I like what I’m seeing in practice so far. Nobody wants to lose. Obviously, there’s a challenge to let everybody play, but we’ve also got some guys that know their roles in the team, which I think is good,’ Tiu said.
‘We’ll figure it out. I mean, it’s a tournament. We’re playing eight games in 10 days. It’s never an easy thing. So, I think everybody will have enough opportunity to perform,’ he added.
This year’s Jones Cup will run from August 14-23, right in time for the PBA’s break for the FIBA World Cup qualifiers.
‘Thankfully, swak sa schedule ng PBA na may off talaga, wala kaming games, so I guess it all kind of worked out. But obviously, the priority while I’m here is still Phoenix, it’s still my team, so we need to win some games in the PBA,’ he said.
Phoenix will still play two games – against Rain or Shine on Sunday and against Magnolia next Wednesday – before flying off to Taiwan next Thursday.
‘I think pinaalam naman sa PBA, very thankful to the board, through Boss [Raymond Zorrilla] na inaayos naman. So hopefully, wala namang issues.’