It’s been less than a week since the end of an epic ASEAN Basketball League action and some of the teams (and players) are already back into action.
It’s time for the FIBA Asia Champions Cup SEABA Qualifiers 2018 and there will be plenty of ASEAN Basketball League pieces in play throughout the entire duration of the tournament from 8-10 May. Check out the schedule and details of the competition here.
Of the participating teams, the hosts Mono Vampire Basketball Club will be proudly representing the ASEAN Basketball League. Having just lost the ABL title in an intense series, the Mono Vampire are back into action and will be returning a majority of the same bunch. With the FIBA Asia Champions Cup allowing only 2 foreigners per team, the Mono Vampire have only selected Jason Brickman and Mike Singletary to be their foreign aids here. However, they will still have the main firepower from local Thai players Teerawat Chantachon, Darongphan Apiromwilaichai, and Chitchai Ananti.
Expect younger players like Suppawich Khukhandhin and Arnut Phuangla to play in bigger roles as well.
Though the remaining teams in the tournament (Red Baron of Malaysia, Xin Hua Sports Club of Singapore, and Pelita Jaya of Indonesia) are not members of the ABL, they do have some players on their line up that have strutted their stuff in the league.
Red Baron (Malaysia) will not be fielding any Westports Malaysia Dragons players from the past season but they will have former ABL Champion Wong Wee Seng at the guard spot. Wee Seng played a back-up role to Jason Brickman on the 2015-2016 Championship team and has played in 38 games in his whole career. He’ll have a chance to play against Brickman here once again.
Xin Hua SC (Singapore) will be fielding a mainstay of the Singapore Slingers, Mitchell Folkoff. The bulky Folkoff is more known for his defensive style of play, but his team might have to rely on his offensive prowess in this tournament as they are reportedly not fielding an import in this tournament. Folkoff has played 3 seasons in the ABL with 1 Finals appearance.
An interesting agreement between the club Pelita Jaya and PERBASI means that they will be fielding a team composed of players from the National Team pool in this tournament. CLS Knights players Sandy Kurniawan and Firman Nugroho have been named to the team, as well as Arki Wisnu, Kevin Yonas Sitorus, and Avan Seputra who all played for the Indonesia Warriors a few seasons ago.
