All about the Jones Cup

The Philippines has now won four Jones Cup titles since the inaugural competition in Taipei in 1977. Coach Chot Reyes showed the way for the fourth championship as Smart Gilas upset the US, 76-75, to finish with a 7-1 record last Sunday. A US win would’ve created a triple tie for first with the US, the Philippines and Iran at 6-2. The US lost to Iran by eight and Iran was beaten by Gilas by two. So if the US beat Gilas by 15 or more, the Americans would’ve bagged the title. If the US beat Gilas by 14 or less, Iran would’ve been the champion. To avoid complications, the Philippines made sure of defeating the US to wind up undisputed No. 1.

The Jones Cup was conceived in 1977 to honor Dr. Renato William Jones, an Englishman who served as FIBA secretary-general for 44 years. In November 1963, Jones was present in Taipei when the Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) was formally established. And Jones was instrumental in granting Asia status as a zone commission at the FIBA World Congress in Tokyo in 1964. The ABC is now known as FIBA-Asia.

In 1929, Jones introduced basketball to Switzerland and three years later, became a co-founder of FIBA. He was elected the governing body’s first secretary-general in June 1932. Jones relinquished the position to Borislav Stankovic in 1976 and died in Munich in 1981.

The Jones Cup is an annual international invitational tournament organized by the Chinese Taipei Basketball Association. The idea to stage a high-level competition in Taipei came in the wake of the entry of the People’s Republic of China as a regular member of the ABC in 1975. The American missionary team Athletes In Action won the first Jones Cup title in 1977 with another American entry the Eastern Washington State varsity taking second place. The Philippines was represented by Yanmar Diesel which finished fifth. The next year, another US squad captured the crown. YCO wore the Philippine colors and placed eighth in the nine-team tournament.

In 1981, Northern Cement of the Philippines ended the Western domination of the annual event. Coach Ron Jacobs swept the 13-team tournament with a cast that featured Ricardo Brown, Willie Pearson, Jeff Moore, Dennis Still, Frankie Lim, J. B. Yango, Eddie Joe Chavez, Bruce Collins, Steve Schall, Mike Santos, Michael Antoine and Dave Wear. The reserves included Itoy Esguerra, Bokyo Lauchengco, Ricky Relosa and Ed Cordero.

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Northern Cement won eight in a row, including an 86-85 overtime decision over the Midwest Select of the US coached by Augsburg College’s Rees Johnson. Among the US stars were NBA draft picks Greg Boone and Greg White, Ronnie Henderson, Tim Mattek, Mike Brown of Whittier College and Doug Holtmeier of Kearney State. Northern also crushed France, 60-49, New Zealand, 73-55, Sweden, 73-68, Canada, 91-58 and Taiwan, 74-44. France was led by former Portland Trail Blazers center Robin Jones. Northern’s win was the Philippines’ first in an international competition since the 1973 ABC Championships in Manila.

In 1985, Jacobs was back in the Jones Cup, this time with San Miguel Beer. There were 14 teams vying for honors and the entries included the Uruguay national squad that took sixth place at the Los Angeles Olympics the year before, Canada coached by the venerable Jack Donohue (who mentored Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then Lew Alcindor, at Power Memorial High School in New York) and led by Jay Triano, Perugia of Italy coached by Jim McGregor and bannered by Indiana’s 1977 third round draft pick Stan Mayhew, Taiwan with 6-6 University of California forward Richard Chang and Sweden headed by naturalized citizen Billy Magarity of the University of Georgia.

But the toughest nut to crack was the US All-Stars coached by Purdue’s legendary Gene Keady. The US team boasted of future NBA cagers Harold Pressley of Villanova, Kenny Gattison of Old Dominion, Joe Wolf of North Carolina and Kevin Henderson of California State at Fullerton. Others in the stellar cast were Frank Ford of Auburn, Jay Bilas and Tommy Amaker of Duke, Anthony Watson of San Diego State, John Brownlee of Texas, Todd Mitchell and Troy Lewis of Purdue and Carven Holcombe of Texas Christian.

It came down to a battle between the two surviving unbeaten teams San Miguel and the US. The Philippines shocked the US, 108-100, in overtime as Chip Engelland unloaded 43 points, Samboy Lim 23, Allan Caidic 19 and Moore 13. Franz Pumaren chipped in seven points and Hector Calma three. Others who played for San Miguel were Still, Yves Dignadice and Tonichi Yturri.

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In 1998, the Philippines won its third Jones Cup crown with coach Tim Cone’s Centennial team downing Chinese-Taipei, 82-72, in the clincher. Cone’s squad was made up of Kenneth Duremdes, Marlou Aquino, Johnny Abarrientos, Vergel Meneses, Caidic, Alvin Patrimonio, Jun Limpot, Dennis Espino, Olsen Racela, Jeff Cariaso and Jojo Lastimosa.

Then came Reyes’ triumph signaling the breakthrough which could bring the Philippines back to the World Championships for the first time since Manila hosted the quadrennial event in 1978.

PBA commissioner Chito Salud said, “I am looking forward to joining the SBP in Japan as the PBA lends its unequivocal support to its quest to have Manila host the 2013 Asian qualifying tournament for the World Cup in 2014. We highly value our country’s strong relations with FIBA in Asia under the dynamic leadership of secretary-general Hagop (Khajirian) of Lebanon and will therefore stand side by side with it in its role in developing Asian basketball to its peak.

“I believe the PBA brand of basketball has toughed up our boys for international competition. Di pwede lalamya lamya. Di pwede saksak lang ng saksak in the hope of getting a bail-out call. We must further develop and strengthen our mid to long-range shooting along with our free throws. Most important of all, dapat may poise and experience to be competitive against taller and bigger opponents.

“Our country has just taken a giant step toward reestablishing our rightful place among the top powers in Asia. I am extremely happy for the boys and the fans and proud of Philippine basketball.”

Source: http://www.philstar.com/thedeanscorner/columnscontent.aspx?articleid=843012&publicationsubcategoryid=69