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College Basketball: Indonesia’s Finest Prepare for Showdown
Wimbo Satwiko | February 15, 2012

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Three months of conference competition is over and now the National Collegiate Basketball League is ready for the finals, which start today in Jakarta.

The 47 men’s and 25 women’s teams from 49 universities that entered the competition, known as Libamanas, when it started in November have been whittled down to the top 16 men’s teams and top 12 women’s teams. The finalists will vie for the trophy at Gelora Bung Karno Basketball Hall, with the final match in both divisions scheduled for Monday.

The Indonesian Basketball Association (Perbasi), partnering with the Association of Collegiate Sport Indonesia, introduced a new format this season.

Instead of the series format involving two tiers of competition used in previous seasons, the organizers adopted the US NCAA conferences system. Teams were divided into five conferences: Jakarta-Banten, West Java, Central Java-Yogyakarta, East Java and Nusantara, for the universities outside Java.

Perbasi chairman Anggito Abimanyu said the new system gave all universities an equal chance to play in the league and had prompted more teams to join Libamanas.

“We hope in future years more universities will participate in Libamanas,” Anggito told reporters on Wednesday. “I have also talked to the chancellors of several universities about this and urged them to build indoor stadiums on their campuses.”

The finals use a knockout round system that Anggito said would force each team to put in its best effort in each game.

In the men’s division, Institut Teknologi Harapan Bangsa Bandung, the winner of the West Java conference, is the top seed and will face off against No. 16-ranked Syiah Kuala University of Aceh today.

Defending champion Pelita Harapan University, which won the Jakarta-Banten conference, is seeded second and plays its first-round match against Widyatama University from East Java. Meanwhile, the top four seeds in the women’s division — ABFII Perbanas, Surakarta University, University of Surabaya and Pelita Harapan University — received first-round byes.