Bleacher Talk

CYBL - Hapee Cup Results from Feb. 23-24 UC, USC North Score Sweeps in CYBL The University of Cebu (UC) and University of San Carlos North Campus ( USC NC ) scored close wins over upset-conscious foes to sweep their respective divisions at the Cebu Youth Basketball League (CYBL) – Hapee Cup over the weekend. UC scored a close 79-75 win over USC South Campus ( USC SC ) in double overtime to take solo leadership of the Midget division. USC SC was on its way to scoring a big upset over the pre-tournament favorites as they led UC throughout the game. And with the game tied at 59-all and six seconds left, USC SC broke down the full-court trap of UC perfectly, but Daryl Nazareno missed from point blank as time expired. The first overtime was a repeat of the last five minutes of regulation as both teams traded baskets and lead changes. With UC down 67-68, UC’s Gerald Ampoon had a chance to lead UC to a win, but could only split his charities to tie the game anew and send it into a second over...

Bleacher Talk Feb. 24, 2008 Good News, Bad News First the good news. Cebu is hosting a national-level basketball tournament called the National Students Basketball Championship (NSBC). This starts tomorrow and will last until early next week. For such a feat, the local basketball family must be jumping for joy and proudly telling the whole country about it. After all, this is a national thing, isn’t it? But why aren’t we doing just that? Why aren’t Cebu’s basketball leaders trumpeting the event in the same way that the local Cebu horse owners group proudly hosted the Governor’s Cup last week? Even the drag racing competition at the SRP seems to be a louder event, and it’s technically only for the rich and their fancy cars. I’m afraid this is where the bad news comes in. The NSBC is not as “national” as it really is. While the ‘NSBC” as a tournament title indicates that it’s a national collegiate tournament, it just isn’t. The only thing national about this is that the country’s differe...

Bleacher Talk Feb. 17, 2008 A Hapee CYBL For today, I’m going to bend over a bit from Bleacher Talk’s “policies” when I talk about the Cebu Youth Basketball League (CYBL). I normally don’t openly discuss projects which Bleacher Talk directly manages, but this will have to be an exception to the rule and I think you’ll see why. For some time now, we have always talked about the need to develop basketball among the youth. We’re loaded with a lot of basketball activities at the collegiate and commercial levels, but the youth scene has been very quiet. But when you sum it all up, it doesn’t make sense. We’re top heavy with activities, but the base or foundation isn’t aligned with the top. To cut a long story short, we just went out and did it. And so the CYBL was born. It sets itself to be a venue for developmental activities for basketball teams in the Under-15 and Under-12 age groups. The basketball scene for boys under 15 years old is relatively quiet, and it has become our dream to kee...

Bleacher Talk Feb. 3, 2008 Now or Never It couldn’t have been more appropriate. “Now or never” indeed is the situation in which so many boxers find themselves these days, and we’re not talking about only Z Gorres who is hours away from facing Vic Darchinyan as I write this piece. When you say now or never in boxing, we’re talking about all our favorite boxers who find themselves neither here nor there. They’ve reached so far yet they always fall short of that elusive dream of a world championship. And thus, their real chances of winning a world championship skews towards the “never” side of life. At Friday’s weigh-in for ‘Now or Never,” I bumped into former world flyweight champ Malcolm Tuñacao, a classic case of the now or never syndrome who refuses to say “never.” When I asked about his plans for the future, he said he will still go on fighting and would go back to the gym starting tomorrow. If he shows up at the ALA Gym like he said, then I hope that’s a good sign of better things t...