The new tournament of the Philippine Basketball League opened yesterday and to hype up it up, sportswriters have keyed in on the new backcourt for Licealiz (formerly Hapee Toothpaste), Chris Tiu and Jayvee Casio:

Former varsity rivals Chris Tiu and JV Casio extend their partnership to Hapee Toothpaste when the Philippine Basketball League’s season-opening tournament unfolds on April 14.

Ateneo’s Tiu and La Salle’s Casio, whose head-to-head duel reached its height in last season’s UAAP championship, will share backcourt chores anew after training together with the Smart-Gilas Philippine developmental team in recent months.

In his blog, Tiu mentions that they weren't just teammates, but they were also roommates for their recent Serbia training:

Rooming assignments were assigned by coach. Two to a room. Guess who my room mate is! No other than JVee Casio :) After this whole Ateneo-La Salle fairytale, we're now teammates/roommates in the National Team AND in Hapee in the PBL. Coincidence? Such a nice, silent and humble guy with occasional humorous comments! Cool huh!?

And there was some pillow talk too, after a couple of bad losses to local teams:

Before going to bed last night, i was talking to my roommate JV and we agreed that this was truly a humbling experience for us but fortunately, we have a long term program and a great coach who, we believe, can bring out our potentials to the fullest.

(I'm tempted to make a snarky comment about how he sounds like a schoolgirl LJer, but then he might move his blog to LJ and make his blog "friends-only" which means that we won't get to read his adventures anymore.)

Anyway, I just hope that Casio didn't order porn on pay-per-view, because Tiu totally won't be chipping in for it:

“When he was 11, he joined the school team representing the country in a basketball tournament in Las Vegas. While the boys were quartered in a motel, one of them accidentally went to an X-rated channel. The next day, the coach found out about it and was so angry. As punishment, the kids were asked to pay for the charged TV show,” [Tiu's mother] Lianne recalled.

“Chris approached me and said that he would not pay for it. I told him it was only fair that all of them paid equally since they all watched. I later found out that he really did not join the group to watch, since he turned his back on the TV and prayed the rosary!”

Anyhow, the Chris and Jayvee show got off to a rough start, as they lost to defending champion Oracle (formerly Harbour Centre) in their opener yesterday. Tiu and Casio were hounded into tough shooting afternoons and were held to 6 and 2 points, respectively.