MAKE way for “COVID-19 reserve players.”
No thanks to the dreaded pandemic, the UAAP will allow a 20-man line-up, four of those players as back-ups, if and when the unseen but vicious enemy infects teams in the 84th basketball tournament.
“One of the things that we added to the mix is historically the roster of a team has 16 players so we added a COVID reserve of four players just in case there are players, athletes who will contract the virus,” league president Emmanuel Calanog of host La Salle said on Radyo5 92.3 News FM’s Power and Play program hosted by former PBA Commissioner Noli Eala.
“Teams can actually tap any of those four COVID reserves to replace that positive player but again for only coronavirus reasons, not for injury, not for anything else but for COVID only,” he added.
The league is set to kick off its new season on March 26 with the centerpiece events of men’s basketball, women’s volleyball and cheerdance leading the calendar.
The slate also includes men’s and women’s 3×3 basketball, men’s beach volleyball, poomsae, and men’s and women’s chess.
The Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay, Smart Araneta Coliseum, The Arena in San Juan, and the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig are being considered as venues of the cage wars.
