Penang Chief Minister Cup 2016 Mini-Preview

Hey! Guess what? There’s still more basketball even after the SEABA Stankovic Cup 2016 in Thailand ended. This time we’re still going with an international sense of basketball as we head into the second Penang Chief Minister Cup 2016. The tournament will be held during 3-7 June 2016 at the Han Chiang Indoor Stadium in Penang (duh), Malaysia.

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As mentioned, this will be the second time the tournament has been held. In last year’s edition, the tournament saw 6 teams which were:

Blackwater Elite (Philippines)
Malaysia National Team (Malaysia)
Kanataka State (India)
Australia Chinese Basketball Association (Australia)
Siglap (Singapore)
National Taiwan University of Arts (Chinese Taipei)

In that tournament, it was the Malaysian National Team that won the championship with a 4-0 record by beating out Blackwater Elite (Philippines) in the last game 82-76.

The tournament allows teams to put two imports into their rosters and that tends to spicen up the game a bit.

This year, the only 3 of the teams from last year will be returning but there will be three new teams from 2 new countries to fill in the 6 team roster. The teams are:

Blackwater Elite (Philippines)
Malaysia National Team (Malaysia)
Kanataka State (India)
Zhejiang Chouzhou Commercial Bank (China)
Chien Hsin University of Science & Technology (Chinese Taipei)
PEA Basketball Club (Thailand)

PS. If you haven’t figured out by know why I am covering this tournament so closely…I’ll give you a hint. *whispers* It’s because I’m Thai.

I have no idea whatsoever about Kanataka State or Xhejiang Chouzhou Commercial Bank or Chien Hsin University, but I know enough about the remaining three teams to give a quick rundown.

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Blackwater Elite is a team from the prestigious Philippines Basketball Association. They are in between the break of the season between the Commissioner’s Cup and the Governor’s Cup. During the past two conferences, Blackwater has finished both with an identical 3-8 record. It looks bad, but it’s actually a step up from their performance last year.

Despite the two import rule of the tournament, Blackwater will not be using the services of neither their newly signed import, Eric Dawson, or their Asian Import, Imad Qawash. This saddens me from whatever “Dawson’s Creek” or “Imad Carwash” jokes I could have used. Instead, Blackwater will be fielding an All Filipino lineup. According to some reports and players Facebook accounts, Blackwater will have:

Jerick Canada
Raphy Reyes
JP Erram
Roi Sumang
Mike Cortez
Carlo Lastimosa
Reil Cervantes
Kyle Pasqual
Frank Golla
Bam Gambalinda
Gilbert Bulawan
James Sena

There’s no official line up out yet, but that’s what we have for now. I am completely heartbroken that I can’t confirm whether Art Dela Cruz will be playing or not, but I truely hope he does. Whatever the case, having Carlo Lastimosa and Mike Cortez should be fun.

And yes, ex-Hitech Bangkok City guard, Jerick Canada is also going to be there as well.

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The Malaysia Dragons, as they are listed, should be some variation of the Malaysian National Team that had just played in the SEABA Stankovic Cup and the Blustar Detergent Dragons that will be playing in the PBA DLeague. If we’re going by that PBA DLeague squad, the line up will be:

Ong Wei Yong
Liaw Chee Huei
Teo Kok Hou
Choo Wei Hong
Mohd Shazwan
Wong Yi Hou
Kwaan Yoong Jing
Mak Long Seng
Gan Hong Hoong
Ma Chee Kheun
Ivan Yeo
Kuek Tian Yuan
Juami Tiongson
Christian Palma

(*Lineup via Twitter)

Obviously the guys to watch on this team are standouts Wong Yi Hou and Kwaan Yoong Jing after their performance during the SEABA Stankovic Cup. Ma Chee Kheun, Kuek Tian Yuan, and Ivan Yeo might also bounce back from a subpar tournament.

What’s interesting is whether Juami Tiongson and Christian Palma will be playing with the Dragons in this tournament or not, but in that case, they would fit in with the two import rule.

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PEA Basketball Club was a late addition into the team roster, but they sure are hungry. While they are still a very young team, they are not shy about going out and getting competition to sharpen their claws and get better. Here is their expected roster:

Raymon Austin
Athiwat Hoom-art
Arnon Iamlamai
Panthawat Techasamran
Tanasit Moonwong
Aphirak Muangprasert
Phongphon Wongwiset
Eakanat To-Ngiw
Supanat Ruangrat
Nutchapong Pattharapisek
Pattiparn Krutsorn
Tanai Jansri

PEA is also going bold with only one import right now. I do not have much on Austin, so I’ll save my comments on him for the Thailand Basketball League Preview (stay tuned for that!). PEA has a trio of sneaky decent shooters like Ruangrat, Pattarapisek, and Krutsorn and can fuse that with slashin guards Hoom-art and To-Ngiew. Having a pass-first guard like Moonwong to round it up should be nice.

Watch out for athletic forward, Aphirak Muangprasert, to turn some heads.

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So that’ll be it for our brief preview. I have absolutely no idea how this tournament will turnout because I know only about half of the teams and even then vaguely about those teams I know of.

But that’s the fun of these sort of pocket tournaments both for the participating teams and the fans. You get to learn each team as each game goes by together.

So follow me along this journey and learn about each team with me! I might be covering the tournament for only about 3 days, but I’ll be sure to share as much as I can collect.

Here is the schedule:

I will surely be live streaming these following games (and events):

PEA (Thailand) vs Blackwater (Philippines) >> 17:00 on 4/6
NTPM 3-Point Shoot-Out Competition >> 20:00 on 5/6
Malaysia Dragons (Malaysia) vs PEA (Thailand) >> 21:00 on 5/6

so make sure to follow the Tones & Definition Facebook Page for those livefeeds.
Should any other game seem interesting, I will be sure to provide feeds for those games too.

And yes, there is a three point shoot out and I can’t wait for that.

STAY TUNED!