THE University of the Visayas (UV) and the University of Cebu (UC) will renew their rivalry in the 1st Mayor Inocentes Cabaron Inter-Collegiate Invitational Basketball tournament in the southwestern town of Moalboal next month.

The two teams, which made the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) finals last year, were among the teams nominated by commissioner Felix Tiukinhoy who will be joining the cash-rich tournament staged as part of activities in the run-up to the town fiesta.

Only six of the seven members of Cebu’s collegiate league were invited due to budgetary constraints. Aside from the 14-time champion UV and two-time champion UC, the other four teams are the University of Southern Philippines Foundation, University of San Jose-Recoletos, Cebu Institute of Technology-University and Southwestern University.

The six teams will play a single round robin with the top two fighting for the title and P200,000 cash prize. The third- and fourth-ranked teams will play for a third place worth P100,000, while the eliminated teams will settle for the P20,000 cash prize.

This early, UV, which won last year’s Cesafi title after sweeping UC in the final, is the favorite of the tournament.

The basketball event is just one of a series of sports events initiated by Mayor Inocentes Cabaron, who also pushed for competitions in chess, Mobile Legends, dayon-dayon volleyball and arnis.

Mayor Cabaron will meet with the coaches of the six schools and Cesafi officials led by Tiukinhoy for the coaches’ meeting and press conference of the event on Friday, March 24, 2023. (ML)