San Miguel-Philippines

: "This article is about the basketball team representing the Philippines. For the Philippine corporation, see San Miguel Corporation. For the Philippine Basketball Association team, see San Miguel Beermen."Infobox Basketball club
color1 =#FFFFFF
color2 =#0000FF
name =San Miguel Corporation
imagesize =100px
leagues =Philippine Basketball Association (1984-1985)
founded =1981
history =Northern Consolidated
1981-85
San Miguel Corporation
1985-86, 2005-present
arena =(none)
location =Philippines
colors =Blue, white and red
president =Manuel V. Pangilinan
coach =Chot Reyes
championships =2 William Jones Cups, 1 Asian Youth Basketball Championship, 1 PBA Reinforced Conference Championship, 1 Southeast Asian Games gold medal, 1 Asian Basketball Conference Championship, 2 Sultan's Cups
website = http://www.sanmiguel.com.ph
h_pattern_b=_royalbluesides|h_body=ffffff|h_shorts=0000FF|h_pattern_s=_blanksides
a_pattern_b=_thinwhitesides|a_body=0000FF|a_shorts=0000FF|a_pattern_s=_whitesides

San Miguel-Philippines (1981-present) is a special Philippine select team formed to represent the country as a club team to compete internationally. The team was first formed as part of a national basketball program for the Philippines' best amateur players. San Miguel-Philippines also carried the names Northern Consolidated Cement (NCC) and San Miguel Beer (SMB). When playing as a national team, the team is simply called Team Philippines / Team Pilipinas. The Philippine national basketball team competes under the "San Miguel - Philippines" name when it participates in non-FIBA or FIBA club tournaments.

History

NCC Era

The first San Miguel-Philippines team was set up in the 1980s under the guidance of American coach Ron Jacobs and with the support of Filipino businessman and sports fanatic Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco and the San Miguel Corporation.

Originally set up as part of a national program to keep Philippine basketball competitive on the international stage, the team was first composed of amateur Filipino stalwarts. The program, along with the creation of the Philippine Amateur Basketball League, sought to keep the amateur stars from joining the professional Philippine Basketball Association and keep the Philippines competitive in FIBA basketball tournaments. (Prior to 1989, professionals were not allowed to participate in FIBA tournaments.) The players on the team were eventually allowed to turn pro when they had finished their stint with the team.

The first San Miguel-Philippines team was mainly made up of American imports and Filipino-Americans which include Willie Pearson, Dennis Still, Jeff Moore and National Basketball Association draftee Ricardo Brown. The team easily won the 4th William Jones Cup championship in 1981 but failed to gain support among the Filipinos, due to most players in the squad were not Filipino players.

Cojuangco, appointed basketball project director by the government, then set up a basketball program to promote Philippine basketball in the Asian region and in world basketball. In 1982, Jacobs led the San Miguel-Philippines, under-19 national team, to the Asian Youth Basketball Championships which include players like Leo Austria, Jong Uichico, Hector Calma, Louie Brill and Samboy Lim. The team beat China in the final at the Araneta Coliseum in Manila.

In 1984, Jacobs formed the second San Miguel-Philippines team to compete in the Philippine Basketball Association. Jacobs retained Jeff Moore and Dennis Still from the first San Miguel-Philippines team, Hector Calma, Louie Brill and Samboy Lim from the under-19 team. The team now include American shooting maestro Arthur Engelland and Filipino hotshot Allan Caidic, who joined the team in 1983.

The team, known as the all-amateur Northern Consolidated Cement (NCC) guest team, competed in the 1984-1985 PBA season and eventually winning the 1985 PBA Reinforced Conference championship. The team went on to represent the Philippines and capturing the 1984 Asian Club Basketball Champions' Cup, the 1985 William Jones Cup championship and represent the Asian region in the 1985 World Club Basketball Championship at Girona, Spain as "San Miguel Beer".

In 1985, the members of the Northern Consolidated Cement team also played for the Philippine national basketball team. The NCC-powered national team won the 1985 South East Asian Games and the 1985-1986 FIBA Asia Championship. The team qualified for the 1986 FIBA World Championship, but the team disbanded, due to the political crisis that led to the Philippine People Power Revolution. The team failed to compete in the World Championship.

Post-NCC Era

After the fall of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986, the NCC national team program was scrapped by the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP).

In 1994, San Miguel Beermen (a club team in the PBA, coincidentally owned by the very same San Miguel Corporation that initiated the NCC/San Miguel-Philippines program), coached by Norman Black, won the 1994 PBA All-Filipino Cup championship and earned the right to represent the country in the up coming Asian Games, held at Hiroshima, Japan. The national team composed of San Miguel players (the core of the team), loan PBA players (notably Alvin Patrimonio and Johnny Abarrientos) and amateur standouts (notably Marlou Aquino). The team, led by NCC veterans Allan Caidic and Hector Calma, went on to finished fourth with Caidic finishing as the Asian Games basketball tournament top scorer.

PBA Era

Road to Beijing, 2008

2005

PBA appointed Vincent "Chot" Reyes to form an all-professional national team, supported and funded by the San Miguel Corporation, to represent the country in future international events. San Miguel-Philippines, as the team is called, went on to represent the country in the FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2005 (finished Fifth), the Las Vegas Global Hoop Summit (most exciting performing team), the William Jones Cup (finished Third), and the 2005 Shell Rimula-Sultan Cup of Brunei (Champion). The team was bannered by Asi Taulava, Rommel Adducul, and Ren-Ren Ritualo. Unfortunately, the Philippines was suspended by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) due to political conflict between leaders of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) and the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP).

2006

San Miguel-Philippines finished sixth in the William Jones Cup and fourth in the Al-Emadi International Basketball Tournament, held at Doha, Qatar. The team is has recently played in a goodwill series against Lebanon and won the Shell Rimula-Sultan Cup title in Brunei for the second year in a row.

2007

After the FIBA suspension was lifted in February 2007, the team went to an intensive training in the United States training camp that was attended before by NBA players. During the said training trip,they also played some tune up games with some NCAA teams.

Next stop for San Miguel-Philippines was the FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2007 held in Terhan, Iran. They played mostly against Arab teams that have two imports while they played without an import. After playing 8 games in 8 days,they finished 4th place in the tourney, a creditable showing as all the other teams played with imports.

Current Players

Hoops team footer|country=PHI|headcoach=Chot Reyes|assistants=flagicon|PHI Aboy Castro, flagicon|PHI Nash Racela
otherlabel=Consultants:
Scout:|others=flagicon|USA Tim Cone, flagicon|USA Norman Black, flagicon|PHI Jong Uichico
flagicon|PHI Binky Favis

|manager=flagicon|PHI Robert Non
teamname=flagicon|PHI San Miguel-Philippines

Notable players

*Original NCC team
**Allan Caidic
**Arthur Engelland
**Hector Calma
**Samboy Lim
**Jeff Moore
**Dennis Still
**Benjie Gutierrez
**Pido Jarencio
**Elmer Reyes
**Franz Pumaren
**Tonichi Yturri
**Alfie Almario
**Yves Dignadice
**Ricardo Brown
*San Miguel team
**Asi Taulava
**Ren-Ren Ritualo
**Romel Adducul

ee also

*Philippines men's national basketball team
*San Miguel Beermen

External links

* [http://mypba.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1103 The NCC Basketball Team]