By JONAS TERRADO
Its title or bust as far as coach Charles Tiu is concerned as Mighty Sports Philippines hopes to improve on last year’s podium finish in the Dubai Invitational Basketball Tournament which starts Jan. 23.
With a talented roster composed of crack foreign players, veterans and top amateur standouts, Tiu said there’s no reason why Mighty can’t win the 10-day tournament after settling for third in the previous edition.
“We better win the championship, that’s all I can say,” he said during a press conference held Thursday night at the company’s La Campana compound in Makati City.
Mighty entered the semifinals of last year’s Dubai tourney unbeaten but suffered an 89-84 loss to eventual champion Al-Riyadi of Lebanon.
The Philippine club eventually claimed third with a win over Homenetmen in the consolation game.
“Hopefully we learned our lessons from our mistakes last year about that same Al Riyadi club that will still be competing again. I think that tournament was just one bad game, and basically that time we had like two imports.”
This time, Mighty Sports will head to the Middle East with three imports, namely Renaldo Balkman, McKenzie Moore and Jelan Kendrick while former Gilas Pilipinas naturalized player Andray Blatche will suit up as a local.
Rain or Shine big man Beau Belga and former PBA guard Joseph Yeo will serve as elder statesmen to a team that includes Thirdy Ravena, Dave Ildefonso, brothers Juan and Javi Gomez de Liano and Jaime Malonzo.
Rounding out the team are Mikey Williams, Gab Banal, Joaqui Manuel and Jarrell Lim.
“Actually, I’m very excited about this tournament because aside from getting all the future of Philippine basketball, I’ve got all my personal favorites also,” said co-owner Caesar Wongchuking, whose team is backed by Creative Pacific, Go for Gold, Oriental Game, Discovery Primea and Gatorade.
“Among the teams that we have handled, this is the team that we are most excited of,” added Wongchuking.
One of Tiu’s assistant is American coach Will Voigt, who recently handed Angola in the FIBA World Cup in China.
