 Seeking to fast-track the success of the program, the first team formed in 1981 (known as the RP Training Team) was mainly made up of eight American players who became naturalized Filipinos (a practice also common to European national teams at that time) which included Dennis Still and Jeff Moore.Two Filipino-Americans, Willie Pearson, and National Basketball Association Filipino-American draftee Ricardo Brown were included, along with two local players in JB Yango and Frankie Lim, both from San Beda College.This was done with the intention of passing on new basketball technology to the Filipino cagers.