MAINSTAY Louie Vigil will be back for one final season for the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers in the coming 79th season of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines men’s basketball tournament, which fires off Sept. 4 Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum.
Now the skipper of the team, Vigil will not be affected by a new league ruling which lowers the age limit of its athletes from 25 to 24.
He will be joined by veterans Kent Lao, Jamil Sherriff, Marvin Bonleon, Marvin Lee and Jeepy Faundo.
New coach Boy Sablan has assembled a lineup which will also have 10 players coming from Team B, and this includes slotman William Afoakwah, Zachary Huang, Joco Macasaet, Jason Strait, Regie Basibas, Oliver de Guzman, Justin Arana,Enrique Caunan and Tsutomo Tateshi.
The Growling Tigers are set to take on the Ateneo Blue Eagles at 4 p.m. in their opening game at 4 p.m., also on Sunday.
The University of the Philippines Maroons will take on the Adamson Falcons earlier at 2 p.m.
Vigil averaged 9.3 points for the Tigers last season and became one of the starters after Kevin Ferrer, Ed Daquiaog and Karim Abdul, who are the Top 3 scorers of the squad last year, finished their college eligibility.
According to the newly released schedule, the defending champion Far Eastern University Tamaraws will start their campaign by playing the La Salle Green Archers on Sept. 7.
The rivalry between Ateneo and La Salle will be on Oct. 2.