COLLEGIATE basketball fans will not have to wait long for the fireworks to start as the opening weekend of the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) basketball tournament will feature the next chapter of the rivalry between Southwestern University (SWU) and the University of San Carlos (USC).
While the league will open a new season on August 6, the fully loaded Cobras and the rejigged Warriors will tangle in the main game of the next day at the Cebu Coliseum.
The Cobras and the Warriors faced off for the Cesafi title in 2014 where the former emerged triumphant but the latter bounced back and ended a 57-year title drought with a championship conquest last season over the University of the Visayas (UV).
The USC team that will trot out this season will look a whole lot different with just five players from the title-winning team coming back. Moreover, the Warriors will be facing one of their own in veteran wingman Ian Ortega who transferred to the Cobras camp during the offseason.
Meanwhile, the much-awaited finals rematch between USC and UV will be on August 28 while the bitter, age-old rivalry between the Green Lancers and the Cobras will be rekindled on September 1.
In the juniors division, the championship rematch between the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu and the University of Cebu will be on August 16.
Another noteworthy game will be the one between the UV Baby Lancers and the Don Bosco Greywolves on August 13 especially in the wake of their free-for-all fracas in a preseason tournament in Cordova several weeks ago.
As a result of that unfortunate incident, 22 players were slapped with suspensions along with fines amounting to a total of P110,000.