THE National Collegiate Athletic Association has appointed Arturo “Bai” Cristobal as commissioner for the second straight season, announced Management Committee chair Melchor Divina of host Mapua.
The 91st NCAA basketball tournament comes off the wraps on June 27 at the MOA Arena in Pasay City.
It will be the second tour of duty for Cristobal after he also served as commissioner in last year’s cage wars, topped by the San Beda Lions, who swept the Arellano University Chiefs in two games.
Cristobal is a former coach of the San Sebastian Stags, a team he steered to several senior championships before transferring to the Perpetual Help Altas.
A former national team member and player of the legendary Crispa Redmanizers dynasty, Cristobal also served as an assistant commissioner to Joe Lipa, when the latter handled the commissionership a few years back.
Divina said he had already received the list of referees he will tap and it will immediately be sent to the Mancom for approval.
The season opens with five-peat champion San Beda clashing with Mapua at 2 p.m. and last year’s second placer Arellano University battling last year’s third place Jose Rizal in the main game at 4 p.m.
The pair of explosive games will be preceded by what organizers tipped as a performance to remember centered on the league’s theme for this year: “NCAA: Engineered for Sports Excellence in the New Decade.”
All games will be telecast live on ABS-CBN’s Sports and Action channel as part of the 10-year contract it signed with the NCAA recently.
Games are set from Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays to Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays with a total of seven senior games to be played every week.
