RP-San Miguel joins Las Vegas tourney


Thursday, 07 14, 2005

The RP-San Miguel Beer squad takes on Aoshen-China on Sunday at the start of the Global Hoops Summit of the NBA-Las Vegas Summer League at Cox Pavilion inside the University of Nevada in Las Vegas campus.

Other matches on tap are those between SFX vs BDA Sports, ESM Sports vs Passing Lane Sports, Long Beach Jam (Japan) vs. Nigerian national team and BCI Edge vs. BTG Express.

The Nationals will take on Passing Lane and its 7'8” Chinese center next on Monday, BDA Sports on Tuesday, Long Beach on Wednesday and the Nigerian national team on Thursday.

South Korea and Qatar begged off at the last minute.

Handled by national coach Chot Reyes, the RP squad is comprised of Mike Cortez, Jayjay Helterbrand, James Yap, Renren Ritualo, Tony dela Cruz, Kerby Raymundo, Rich Alvarez, Kelly Williams, Romel Adducul, Don Allado, Billy Mamaril and Sonny Thoss, with amateur Dennis Miranda as reserve.

They will leave today at 5 p.m. on Flight PR 106 for the 14-hour trip to Las Vegas with a stopover in Vancouver.

The Las Vegas tourney, Reyes said, is an evaluation opportunity apart from the Jones Cup preparation.

“This is part of the RP team program towards building a national pool from which future national teams will be formed,” said Reyes.

“The Jones Cup is part of that program. Now, the Las Vegas summer league was never meant to be a preparation for the Jones Cup. Its purpose really is to evaluate some of the players in the pool which, in turn, serves the objective of the long-term program. That's the mindset behind this trip.”