Rising stars to play in 3x3 World Cup

MANILA, Philippines - There will be no PBA players in the Philippine lineup for the FIBA 3x3 World Cup to be held in Nantes, France, on June 17-21, but coming to the rescue are rising stars Kiefer Ravena, Jeron Teng, Kobe Paras and Raymar Jose who are being tapped for the annual event.

SBP executive director Sonny Barrios said yesterday coach Eric Altamirano will join the Philippine team in Nantes. “Coach Eric has been with us from the start of our involvement with the FIBA 3x3 program,” said Barrios. “Technically, 3x3 rules don’t a allow a coach during a game so coach Eric will work with our team as a consultant.”

SBP 3x3 head Mark Solano said FIBA got excited when the Philippine roster was submitted, particularly as Paras is in the cast. Paras, who played for Creighton University in the US NCAA Division I last season and has since transferred to California State at Northridge, won back-to-back FIBA World U18 Slam Dunk titles so he’s well-known in the 3x3 community. Ravena and Teng combined with foreign athletes Bright Akhuetie and Ola Adeogun to beat Qatar’s U18 team, 18-11, in an exhibition at the FIBA 3x3 All-Stars in Doha in 2015 so they’re familiar with each other in the 3x3 setting. Ravena, Teng and Jose were UAAP standouts from different schools.

The deadline to register players for the World Cup was last Tuesday. Solano said changes may be made until a week before the competition.   

In last year’s World Cup in Guangzhou, the Philippines was represented by Mac Belo, Karl Dehesa, Russell Escoto and Glenn Khobuntin all of whom are now in the PBA. The four-man squad upended Romania, 21-19 and crushed Poland, 21-8 but failed to advance to the quarterfinals after bowing to Spain, 21-16 and Hungary, 18-16. The Philippines wound up ninth of 20.

The Philippines is bracketed in Group B in this year’s fourth edition of FIBA’s premier 3x3 competition. Others in the group are No. 2 seed Slovenia, No. 7 seed Romania, No. 10 seed France and No. 15 seed El Salvador. Group A is made up of Serbia, Russia, Andorra, Egypt and Puerto Rico. Comprising Group C are Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Qatar and Sri Lanka. Group D is composed of the US, Netherlands, New Zealand, Indonesia and South Korea.

After the round-robin preliminaries, the top two finishers of each group advance to the knockout quarterfinals under this crossover pairing format – A1 vs. D2, C1 vs. B2, B1 vs. C2 and D1 vs. A2. Survivors move on to the semifinals where the winners will play for the title. Serbia took the inaugural championship in Athens in 2012. Then, Qatar claimed the crown in Moscow in 2014 with a cast made up of naturalized player Boney Watson, Yasseen Musa, Mohammed Seleem and Erfan Ali Saeed. In 2016, Serbia regained the throne in Guangzhou.

The Philippines is scheduled to battle Romania at 6 p.m. and France at 9:10 p.m., both on June 18. Then, the next games will be against Slovenia at 7:40 p.m. and El Salvador at 9 p.m. on June 20. There are 40 total teams in the men’s and women’s divisions from 36 countries entered in the tournament. El Salvador, South Korea and Sri Lanka are participating in their first-ever 3x3 World Cup.

It won’t be easy sailing for the Philippines as host France has the homecourt advantage, Romania was the 2014 3x3 Euro Cup champion and Slovenia took the 2016 title. A consolation is the Philippines beat Romania in last year’s 3x3 World Cup so a repeat is doable. NBA star Tony Parker will make an appearance on the final day of the event as ambassador of The Bridge, a celebration of the centennial anniversary of the 1917 landing of two million American soldiers in France to fight in World War I.