Mighty Sports gets to test its vaunted lineup against the United Arab Emirates national team on Thursday in the Dubai International Basketball Tournament.
Set at 7 p.m. (11 p.m. Manila time), the country’s representatives take on the UAE squad before an expected mammoth crowd of home fans and overseas Filipino workers.
Bracketed in Group B, Mighty Sports will face Al Ittihad of Allepo on Friday before taking a one-day breather the following day.
Mighty Sports will try to improve on its third-place finish last year when it had Justine Brownlee and Lamar Odom as reinforcements. Naturalized Filipino Andray Blatche and Renaldo Balkman are reinforcing the team this time.
“We have a solid crew and we are confident of our chances,” Coach Charles Tiu said.
“Our local players are some of the best from college while Andray and Balkman are expected to provide huge help for the team,” he added.
The team is also composed of collegiate stars Thirdy Ravena, Dave Ildefonso, Jamie Malonzo, Juan and Javi Gomez de Liaño and Isaac Go.