2020 PBA D-League Aspirants' Cup

The 2020 PBA D-League Aspirants' Cup was the ninth Aspirants' Cup season of the PBA D–League, the official minor league basketball organization owned by the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). The conference commenced on February 13. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a concern for the league organizers, halting the season opening as a preventive measure against the outbreak.^[1][2] The conference started on March 2 but the league forced indefinite suspension of games nine days later.^[3]

2020 PBA D-League Aspirant's Cup
The 9th PBA Aspirant's Cup
Duration	March 2 – 11 (canceled)
Number of teams	12
TV partner(s)	One Sports PBA Rush
PBA D-League Aspirant's Cup chronology
< 2019 2022 >

On September 30, 2020, PBA commissioner Willie Marcial announced that the tournament has been officially canceled.^[4]

Format

Twelve teams participate in the conference. The tournament will be conducted in four stages:^[5]

• Single round-robin elimination, where a team plays the other teams once. The six teams with the worst records are eliminated. The top two placers advance to the semifinals outright.
• The quarterfinals, #3 seeded team faces #6 seeded team and #4 seeded team plays the #5 seeded team. Higher seeds possess the twice-to-beat advantage.
• The semifinals, #1 seeded team faces the winner of #4 vs #5 quarterfinals while #2 seeded team plays the winner of #3 vs #6 quarterfinals. This is a best-of-three playoff.
• The finals, which is a best-of-three series.

Venues

Most games will be played at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig. Other venues include the Paco Arena in Manila and JCSGO Gym in Quezon City. Filoil Flying V Centre was only used on the opening games of the season.

Teams

The following are the participating teams:^[6]

Team		Head coach
AMA	AMA Online Education Titans	Mark Herrera
CEU	Karate Kid–CEU Scorpions	Jeff Napa
DIL	Diliman Blue Dragons	Rensy Bajar
DLS	Eco Oil–La Salle Green Archers	Derrick Pumaren
FEU	Seaoil Extreme Racers–FEU Tamaraws	Olsen Racela
FME	FamilyMart–Enderun Titans	Pipo Noundou
LET	Wang's Basketball Couriers–Letran Knights	Bonnie Tan
MAP	Marinerong Pilipino Skippers	Yong Garcia
MAU	ADG Dong–Mapúa Cardinals	Randy Alcantara
SSC	Apex Fuel–San Sebastian Golden Stags	Edgardo Macaraya
TIP	TIP Engineers	Sebastian de Vera
UST	Builders Warehouse–UST Growling Tigers	Aldin Ayo

Elimination round

Team standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	GB	Qualification
1	Builders Warehouse–UST Growling Tigers	2	2	0	1.000	—	Advance to the semifinals
2	Marinerong Pilipino Skippers	2	2	0	1.000	—
3	Eco Oil–La Salle Green Archers	2	2	0	1.000	—	Twice-to-beat in the quarterfinals
4	Apex Fuel–San Sebastian Golden Stags	1	1	0	1.000	0.5
5	Seaoil Extreme Racers–FEU Tamaraws	1	1	0	1.000	0.5	Twice-to-win in the quarterfinals
6	ADG Dong–Mapúa Cardinals	1	0	1	.000	1.5
7	Diliman Blue Dragons	1	0	1	.000	1.5
8	FamilyMart–Enderun Titans	1	0	1	.000	1.5
9	TIP Engineers	1	0	1	.000	1.5
10	Wang's Basketball Couriers–Letran Knights	1	0	1	.000	1.5
11	AMA Online Education Titans	1	0	1	.000	1.5
12	Karate Kid–CEU Scorpions	2	0	2	.000	2

Updated to match(es) played on March 9, 2020. Source: PBA.ph
Rules for classification: 1) winning percentage; 2) if two teams are tied, head-to-head record; if three or more teams are tied, head-to-head goal average (quotient); 3) overall quotient 4) coin toss

Schedule

Team ╲ Game	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
AMA Online Education Titans	SSC
Karate Kid–CEU Scorpions	MAP	DLS
Diliman Blue Dragons	UST
Eco Oil–La Salle Green Archers	LET	CEU
Seaoil Extreme Racers–FEU Tamaraws	FME
FamilyMart–Enderun Titans	FEU
Wang's Basketball Couriers–Letran Knights	DLS
Marinerong Pilipino Skippers	CEU	MAU
ADG Dong–Mapúa Cardinals	MAP
Apex Fuel–San Sebastian Golden Stags	AMA
TIP Engineers	UST
Builders Warehouse–UST Growling Tigers	TIP	DIL

Source:^{[citation needed]}
  = Win;   = OT win;   = Loss;   = OT loss

Results

Teams	AMA	CEU	DIL	DLS	FEU	FME	LET	MAP	MAU	SSC	TIP	UST
AMA Online Education Titans	—									67–113
Karate Kid–CEU Scorpions		—		73–79				57–93
Diliman Blue Dragons			—									93–106
Eco Oil–La Salle Green Archers				—			102–90
Seaoil Extreme Racers–FEU Tamaraws					—	99–82
FamilyMart–Enderun Titans						—
Wang's Basketball Couriers–Letran Knights							—
Marinerong Pilipino Skippers								—	83–69
ADG Dong–Mapúa Cardinals									—
Apex Fuel–San Sebastian Golden Stags										—
TIP Engineers											—	62–115
Builders Warehouse–UST Growling Tigers												—

Updated to match(es) played on March 9, 2020. Source: PBA.ph
Legend: Blue = left column team win; Red = top row team win.
Matches with lighter background shading were decided after overtime.

References

1. Dioquino, Delfin (February 10, 2020). "PBA, D-League 2020 season opening postponed due to novel coronavirus". Rappler. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
2. Terrado, Jonas (February 10, 2020). "PBA reschedules 45th season, D-League opener due to nCoV". Manila Bulletin Sports. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
3. Lozada, Bong (March 11, 2020). "Marcial concerned about safety, not losses as virus cancels PBA games". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved March 13, 2020.
4. Leongson, Randolph (September 30, 2020). "As PBA gears up for resumption, D-League cancels season". Sports Interactive Network Philippines. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
5. Henson, Joaquin (March 5, 2020). "D-League gets underway". The Philippine Star. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
6. Riego, Norman Lee Benjamin (February 29, 2020). "2020 PBA D-League lineups". ABS-CBN Sports. Retrieved March 9, 2020.