Chico Lañete (middle, front row) joins his players from the Manila Chooks during the press conference of Chooks-to-Go FIBA 3×3 World Tour Cebu Masters on Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. | Photo from Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Veteran cager turned 3×3 coach Chico Lañete considers the major changes in their roster for tomorrow’s Chooks-to-Go FIBA 3×3 World Tour Cebu Masters a sizeable advantage.
The Cebu Masters, one of the biggest basketball events happening in Cebu this year, will unfold on Saturday, September 22, featuring 14 of the world’s best 3×3 teams, and one of them is Lañete’s Manila Chooks.
In the presser on Thursday, Manila Chooks revealed that they made huge changes in their injury-plagued ranks for the Cebu Masters.
From a small run and gun line-up, Lañete upgraded his four-man Manila Chooks roster to much bigger players headed by 6-foot Cebuano guard and top Filipino 3×3 player Mac Tallo.
He will be joined by former University of Cebu (UC) Webmaster Tosh Sesay of Sierra Leone and two Americans in Marcus Hammonds and Marquez Ellis Lecher.
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Sesay stands 6-foot-9, while Hammons is a 6-foot-5 small forward and Lecher is a 6-foot-8 power forward.
According to Lañete, Tallo, Sesay, Hammonds, and Lecher have been practicing together for a while now. They’ve already anticipated that Cebuano Paul Desiderio and fellow Manila Chooks player Dennis Santos won’t be fully healthy for the Cebu Masters. Thus, they’ve tapped the three foreign big men to back Tallo up.
“Actually, dugay na sila nag practice, kung baga, tua na sila didto, minor adjustments lang, while recovering atong duha ka local, nag practice na sila sa amo-a,” Lañete told CDN Digital.
Yes, the added size is a good advantage, pero kadto akong system sa run and gun kay wala nawala, kay ang mga import bisan dagko sila, naa gihapon silay speed ug strength.”
The No. 11 ranked Manila Chooks will play under Pool C with No. 3 team Vienna-Austria and No. 6 team Futian-China.
Their first game will be against Vienna at 4:20 p.m. in the qualifying round, followed by Futian at 8:20 p.m.
“Pareho ang Futian ug Vienna nga mga lig-on ug kusgan kontrahon. Of course, ang Serbia, ang world champions, dili gyud na sila mawala sa pinakalig-on, grabe ilahang chemistry all the way, maong lisud sila pildihon,” Lañete said.
“Pero kahibalo man ta nga ang mga players nato dili gyud mo atras, mo laban gyud sila,” he added.