All set for PBA On Tour

The offseason PBA On Tour reels off on May 21 in Caloocan with each team allowed a 17-man roster, 16 to play and 11 rule changes that will be on a trial basis. Most games are scheduled at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig but PBA deputy commissioner Eric Castro said yesterday there will also be dates at the FilOil EcoOil Arena, UST gym and four out-of-town venues. UST will host a twinbill on July 5 while Baliuag, Bulacan, takes its turn on June 3, Tiaong, Quezon on June 10, Batangas City on June 17 and Dumaguete City on July 15. No championship will be at stake and each PBA team will play 11 games up to July 30.

The other day, representatives of the 12 teams gathered at the PBA office to discuss proposed rule changes with Castro and the PBA technical committee for close to two hours. Attending were Barangay Ginebra’s Richard del Rosario, Blackwater’s Junjie Ablan, Converge’s McJour Luib, Magnolia’s TonyBoy Espinosa, Rain or Shine’s Caloy Garcia, San Miguel Beer’s Peter Martin, Terrafirma’s Monch Gavieres, TNT’s Bong Ravena, Meralco’s Luigi Trillo, NLEX’ Adonis Tierra, NorthPort’s Waiyip Chong and Phoenix’ Jun Jacinto. The changes are on experiment and will be taken up by the PBA competition committee in August or September to decide whether or not to implement in the next season. The competition committee is made up of PBA head coaches and media on a rotating basis.

Of the 11 rule changes, Castro said the most significant are the coaches’ challenge, transition take foul, resumption of the game after a corrected goaltending call and infractions subject to ejection. He said a proposal to eliminate players’ timeout was thumbed down. In the coaches’ challenge, a head coach will be allowed to challenge a call once each half (no carryover if unused) only if the team has full timeouts left. Calls that may be challenged are act of shooting or sideline throw-in, foul (charging/blocking/common foul), traveling, flopping, eight-second violation, backcourt violation, timeout/held ball, out-of-bounds/last touch and shot clock remaining. If the challenge is unsuccessful, the team will be charged a full timeout. If the challenge is successful, the team will not be charged a timeout.

In a transition take foul, the penalty is a free throw and ball possession. The PBA defines a transition take foul as an international foul committed by a defensive player to deprive the offensive team of a fastbreak opportunity. This is different from an advantage foul. A take foul is committed either during a transition scoring opportunity or immediately after a change of possession and before the offensive team has the chance to advance the ball.

In the resumption of the game after a corrected goaltending call, the ball will be awarded to the team that has immediate control of the ball. If no immediate control of the ball after a whistle, there will be a jumpball at center court. In the existing rule, a jumpball is automatic after a review determines an erroneous call. In the infractions subject to ejection, the new rule is a combination of three violations instead of two. Castro said in the recent Governors’ Cup, Phoenix import Du’Vaughn Maxwell was ejected on a combination of two violations, a technical for verbal altercation and a flagrant foul 1 for contact on the landing spot. Under the new rule, it will take a combination of three violations to eject a player as in three technicals for unsportsmanlike acts, two technicals and a flagrant foul 1, two flagrant fouls 1 and a technical and others. Penalty for a flagrant foul 2 remains an ejection.