Saturday, September 08, 2007 Kabalen cager invades US college basketball league By Raymond C. Garcia
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- A Kapampangan basketball player has formally joined one of the world’s most taunted college basketball league, reports said.
Japeth Aguilar, whose roots is traced in Sasmuan town, is reportedly being paraded by the Western Kentucky University Hilltoppers in the US as one of their towering rookies.
The Western Kentucky University, which is included in the Division I, is one of the college basketball teams in the National Colleges Athletic Association (NCAA) that will be vying for this season’s crown.
At 6’9” tall, Aguilar is said to be the first Kapampangan and first Filipino player to be signed up with the US NCAA Division I squad.
This Pampango dribbler, a former Ateneo Blue Eagles’ center in the UAAP had led the league in terms of shot block including his game high seven blocks.
At 20, Aguilar held the record while playing in his second year as a Blue Eagle and helped the local ball club to a Final Four stint in 2005 before taking a crack at the US collegiate cage scene.
His aerial acrobats also impressed basketball fanatics in the US and that earned him the university’s slam dunk champion.
The son of former Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) cager Peter Aguilar has still two years of eligibility left in the US NCAA.
His debut game will be aired via ESPN U on November 22 during the 30th annual shootout (one of NCAA’s primers) when the Hilltoppers battle Gonzaga in the 2007 Carrs/Safeway Great Alaska shootout.
