Strong Group Athletics Pilipinas braces for a tougher Jones Cup title-retention bid in the 45th edition which unfolds this weekend at the Xinzhuang Gymnasium in New Taipei City.
During SGA’s media availability Friday, head coach Charles Tiu bared that the tournament will have an interesting roster of teams and will employ a new format that will surely test his squad aiming for a third consecutive crown in the annual invitational tournament.
“Well I think this year the tournament is much tougher. There’s a Korean team, also you have the Jordan the national team, you see Irvine, the college team with the 7’9 dude. So interesting pool of teams ngayon.”
Despite the tougher opposition, Tiu believes his squad is ready for the challenge.
“Tougher but still exciting. We should be up for the task and hopefully we can compete and represent the country well,” Tiu added.
SGA is in Group A with DB Promy of Korea, Japan Youth Team and Chinese Taipei-Blue. Group B is composed of Chinese Taipei-White, Jordan national Team, UC Irvine and Malaysia National Team.
This year, the Jones Cup features a pool-stage format where teams in each group will play against each other twice, moving away from the traditional single-round robin.
To boost their 3-peat bid, SGA tapped the services of former NBA player Boban Marjanovic, who is expected to bring his size and experience to the squad. The Serbian 7-foot-4 center shared that he is ready to embrace whatever role will be tasked on him and will do whatever it takes to help the win the tournament.
“Coach is the main guy here, and it’s every team, not just here. And we need to, we need to be team. What coach have on his mind, we [are] supposed to get [it] done” Marjanovic said.
The Serbian big man added that he has three goals in his stint with SGA. “Of course, we come here to win, to win [the] tournament. That’s the first goal. And, of course, second [is] to have fun. And of course, like third [is] to meet the fans.”
Also reinforcing SGA are Puerto Rico national team mainstay Isaiah Piñeiro, Fil-Am guard Remy Martin, Malick Diouf, alongside Matthew Wright, William Navarro and Shaun Ildefonso. Returning for another tour of duty for SGA are Tajuan Agee, DJ Fenner, Dave Ildefonso and Titing Manalili.
Strong Group leaves for Taiwan on Thursday, August 13, in time for the August 14-23 staging of the tournament, coinciding with the PBA’s break for the FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers.
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