MANILA, Philippines – The much-awaited NCAA men’s basketball finals between the Lyceum of the Philippines University and San Beda University drew an unexpected twist that might have given the latter the inside track in the matchup.
Lyceum’s CJ Perez, the reigning league Most Valuable Player, was slapped with a one-game suspension for Tuesday's Game One after having been found guilty of not informing the NCAA of his PBA draft intentions.
Perez applied for the upcoming PBA draft on December 16 through his agent.
The NCAA Management Committee initially slapped Perez with a three-match ban during the finals for failure to notify them of his PBA rookie application. However, a late appeal by Lyceum resulted in the the ban being reduced to one match — which is Game One at the Mall of Asia Arena.
According to sources, Lyceum had wrongly assumed that the deadline for the PBA Draft application was either after the end of the ongoing NCAA season or on the 3rd of December. But Perez, although Filipino, was born in Hong Kong where his mother used to work. As such, the rule for Filipinos born overseas who wish to apply for the PBA draft was set last October 29.
When the NCAA Management Committee called for an emergency meeting last November 3, they applied the rule wherein failure to notify the NCAA in writing of a student-athlete’s intention to apply for the professional draft would result in a suspension from the remaining games.
A compromise was reached and Perez was instead slapped with a one-game suspension.
A source familiar to the proceedings, who refused to be identified, offered his disappointment but at the same time hoped the rest of the team would step up to the challenge.
“It will be difficult without CJ, but this is an opportunity for the rest of the team to rise to the challenge,” he said.