No Romeo vs T’NT

TERRENCE Romeo, in street clothes during San Miguel Beer’s last outing, will miss the game against his former team Talk ‘N Text. ROMAN PROSPERO

The result of the offseason blockbuster trade between rivals San Miguel Beer and Talk ‘N Text will not be known when they clash tonight in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Game time is at 6:45 pm with the newly-minted Beerman Terrence Romeo not playing yet against his former team KaTropa in their first ever face off in the All Filipino conference since the trade.

That will be the bummer of the match as Romeo facing his former squad where he spent just a season is keenly awaited by fans.

Before that, the vastly-improved Columbian seeks to extend its winning ways against a still winless NLEX in the first game at 4:30 pm.

The former KaTropa Romeo became the center of a busy PBA offseason last month after he was traded to rival team Beermen in exchange for Brian Heruela, David Semerad and a future draft pick.

TERRENCE Romeo, in street clothes during San Miguel Beer’s last outing, will miss the game against his former team Talk ‘N Text. ROMAN PROSPERO But San Miguel coach Leo Austria ruled him out of the match due to a nagging ankle injury he sustained against Dyip last week.

“Terrence is really eager to play and contribute to the team but due to his ankle injury, he will not play yet,” said Austria of his newest ward. “He wants to be back at 100 percent.”

Apart from Romeo, SMB will also miss top point guard Alex Cabagnot who is nursing a hamstring injury aside from a previous nose fracture.

Even without their marquee guards, Austria is still upbeat on the Beermen’s chances especially after a 105-93 win over Meralco just two days ago in Antipolo.

“We’re so happy that even without Terrence and Alex, we’re playing well. I think if we play well, it will be hard to beat us,” added the six-time champion coach who still has June Mar Fajardo, Christian Standhardinger, Chris Ross, Arwind Santos and Marcio Lassiter to bank on.

“I hope we can sustain this kind of energy against TNT.”

SMB’s bid, however, will not come easy as TNT is likely to field its complete line up with the possible return of Anthony Semerad and Troy Rosario from their respective injuries.

“We’re improving every day despite our depleted roster,” said TNT mentor Bong Ravena who also has wingman Jericho Cruz on sickbay. “Good thing is Troy and Anthony are already set for comeback. At least we have some additional players.”

Ravena sees the KaTropa as the heavy underdogs especially against the five-peat seeking Beermen.

“SMB is SMB,” he said. “We’re just hoping to compete. We want to fight and we will be ready to fight. Let’s see where that can take us.”

The returning Semerad and Rosario will be joined by Jayson Castro, Roger Pogoy, Kelly Williams, Yousef Taha and Ryan Reyes in the KaTropa who will be riding on a breakthrough 85-80 win over cellar dweller NLEX earlier this week.

Big man Mike Miranda will also be back for the squad after serving his one-game suspension handed by the PBA due to his flagrant foul penalty two (FFP2) infraction against Phoenix’s Justin Chua last week.

Rain or Shine (1-0) and Ginebra (0-1) are currently playing as of press time at the Calasiao Sports Complex in Pangasinan.