Collegiate off-season recruitment wars come to a head at FilOil Preseason Cup

MANILA, Philippines – A staggering 20 teams, including all but one member school of the UAAP and NCAA, are bannering this year’s FilOil EcoOil Preseason Cup, set to tip off on May 6 at its namesake arena in San Juan City.

Headlining the UAAP bracket are Katipunan rivals Ateneo and UP – two of the most active recruiting programs in this year’s ongoing off-season – along with equally-stacked La Salle and defending FilOil champion NU.

Completing the group are NAASCU powerhouse St. Clare College, UCBL king Centro Escolar University, and FAITH College of Batangas, slotting in alongside UAAP members Adamson, FEU, and UE to complete the 10-team pool as UST opted out.

Meanwhile, all 10 NCAA teams are committed to this year’s tourney, with three-time defending champion Letran, retooling rival San Beda, and Season 98 runner-up St. Benilde headlining the opposite group.

Rounding out the pool are Lyceum, San Sebastian, Arellano, Perpetual, Mapua, JRU, and EAC.

Although there are no final rosters as of posting, multiple budding collegiate standouts are possibly set on showcasing their wares in the yearly showpiece, including UP’sFrancis “LeBron” Lopez, Luis Pablo, and Seven Gagate, and Ateneo’s Mason Amos, Lebron Nieto, and Kobe Demisana.

La Salle’s Isaiah Phillips, Adamson’s Eli Ramos, Letran’s Kobe Monje, and San Beda’s Yukien Andrada are also other names to watch out for in the coming weeks and months as both UAAP and NCAA prepare for another basketball season sometime around September or October.

Teams in the FilOil Cup will undergo a round-robin format for the eliminations with only the top three teams in each bracket securing an outright quarterfinal berth.

The fourth-ranked teams from each group will still have a chance through the play-in games but they will have to go against Luzon representative Guang Ming College and the still to be determined VisMin representative for the last two quarterfinal slots.

From there, the crossover knockout playoffs will take effect. – Rappler.com