My name is Mark Dandan. I am a basketball coach by trade (for the UP Fighting Maroons), but I am also a travel junkie by fault. My passion for sports is only rivaled by my insane desire to travel.
And I also collect sneakers, in case you were wondering.
The PBA’s decision to ban Renaldo Balkman was the right thing to do. The league does not condone violence and it showed that it had the cajones to act sternly on such disgusting violations. This will not be about being biased as a foreigner; the act of choking your own teammate cannot be accepted in any kind of sport. He not only attacked teammates, but also his coach and referees. They are all part of the PBA and should be considered an attack on the league itself. It was an unprovoked act of violence and if he were given a second chance, the PBA would only portray itself as a league that cannot make its own decisions and easily swayed by public opinion. This current PBA leadership has proven itself time and again to have been able to mete out fair judgement to any case be it trades, referee and player suspensions.
You also cannot compare this to the Arboleda incident a few years back; of course attacking a fan is never right but he was also provoked using harsh words and threats to his family. Arboleda was banned for a year without pay (he’s only lucky because of his current stature as part of the family) if that happened to another player I don’t think any other PBA team would have signed him again. Most importantly, that was another time and another group of leaders of the PBA. A different time, a different situation. Who knows what would have happened if that incident occured under the PBA’s current leadership.
Attacking a player let alone your own teammate is downright thuggish. Professional players are role models to the youth. Condoning that means that’s its ok to keep a violent, borderline crazy player only to generate more money because the people will be waiting on his next meltdown. There is no room for thugs or goons in basketball. It’s a sport we all love and should be respected. Balkman should know that. There’s a reason why he’s not in the NBA and obviously it is not about his talent.
1. Karim Abdul: This guy is the best center in the UAAP. Stats wise, he is way ahead of Greg Slaughter and any other competition. Skill wise, he has a much more diverse skill set; being able to put the ball on the floor, the athleticism to drive around and finish in traffic, an improved mid-range game and the high rate of rebounding and shot blocking makes for a multi-threat nightmare for Ateneo. His defense will be challenged because of Slaughter’s size but he’s proved that he can battle with the giant many times. Look for him to bounce back in Game 2 after an underwhelming performance.
2. Aljon Mariano: A terrific two-way forward, no 4-guy can keep up with him and no 3-guy can deal with his size. UST is at their best when running their offense thru this walking mismatch; he dropped 22-12 and 5 on Ateneo in Game 1. If not for Salva’s 30 points, that game would’ve belonged to Aljon and the rest of the Tigers. This guy can just flat out play basketball. He has the handles of a point guard with the breakdown moves of a scorer in the size of a post guy. This post-perimeter hybrid does not only create scoring opportunities for himself but also for his other teammates. His apparent strength is also the greatest source of his weakness, he cannot guard the more traditional back to the basket guys like Salva in the post. However, his overall skill and talent negates that disadvantage, giving the Tigers’ attack a lot more bite to it.
3. Jeric Teng: Much like Nico Salva, Teng’s game relies a lot on his confidence. 25 points in his first Finals game is not a bad confidence boost. His scoring kept UST in the game until the end (two straight clutch 3’s) and that will carry over unto Game 2 for sure. Even if he’s missed 20 shots in a row, you can bet that this guy is going to take the biggest shots in the end for UST. He’s never afraid to chuck it up there and more often than not, it ends with him whipping out those pistols of his.
4. Pido Jarencio: With his choice comments about the game and the officiating, Coach Jarencio has drawn the ire of the Atenean community. But like the crafty veteran that he is, I’m sure that he’s spinning this right now as motivation for his team to steal Game 2 and maybe the championship. This guy is very confident in his team and in what they can do and as they’ve done all season long, they’re looking to stage the biggest comeback of their careers.
5. 2006: Back in 06, Ateneo won Game 1 in amazing fashion after a close game throughout. This year’s Game 1 was no different. UST is hoping that the script is going to repeat itself, pulling the rug out under Ateneo to steal Game 2 and take their chances in Game 3. 06 was a banner year for UST where they made the Final Four as the last seed and upset the top seed in the Finals. It’s the classic case of Destiny vs. Dynasty.
X-Factor: Progressive Fatigue and Bench Depth: Coach Jarencio has basically used a 7-8 man lineup the whole season with the starters logging in heavy minutes. Will this huge demand take its toll on UST right when they need strength the most? Is Coach Pido willing to dig deep in his bench to give his starters some key minutes off? The lack of apparent bench depth has been UST’s bane this season. Now with Melo Afuang out, they have been forced to play Mariano more (he cramped up at the end of Game 1) and even Ferrer had time as a 4 guy. Afuang may not be a huge contributor stats wise but his presence as a capable backup and his toughness was missed by the Tigers in the last game.
Last Thoughts: UST’s combo of post-perimeter hybrid players in Mariano and Ferrer has given them a distinct advantage in quickness inside and length outside. This was very apparent with Ferrer shutting down Ravena in the first half and Mariano wreaking havoc on Ateneo’s defense. What was most lacking was contributions from seniors Jeric Fortuna and Clark Bautista. With UST’s frontline trying its best to negate Ateneo’s advantage inside, UST wasn’t able to squeeze anything from their two lead guards. With their UAAP careers on the line, Jeric and Tata are sure to bounce back in Game 2.
1. Nico Salva: This man has made the UAAP Finals his show the past 2 years. After winning last year’s Finals MVP, Salva again showed why he’s money in the postseason by posting a career high against UST. With the Tiger’s insistence on double teaming Slaughter, this has left Salva with a lot of scoring opportunities and he’s made good on that by draining every open jump shot he had. With a game highly dependent on confidence, Salva’s performance has been erratic the past few games before Game 1. But after dropping 30 on a tough UST team, that confidence must be way up there right now. And that right there is bad news for UST.
2. Greg Slaughter: Despite the underwhelming performances put in by Slaughter against LaSalle in the Final Four and UST in Game 1, Slaughter brings intangibles that no other team has. He gives Ateneo an ever present post threat, despite only 5 points in his last game he consistently drew double teams which left Nico Salva open to drop 30 points on the heads of UST. The same couldn’t be said for Karim Abdul whom Slaughter held to a stalemate. Abdul cannot command double teams because Slaughter and the other Ateneo bigs can cover him one on one. Slaughter is also a high rate rebounder and seems to get every miss during the end game. But the biggest advantage is literally his size; no team has an imposing presence on offense and on defense like Greg Slaughter. He doesn’t only block a number of shots but also changes more than he gets credit for. Look for Greg to bounce back in Game 2.
3. Kiefer Ravena: The Phenom deserves his title by carrying his team on his back the past few games. Scoring 28 points to kick out DLSU and hitting for 13 points in the second half (including the dagger in the dying seconds) is no small feat for a college sophomore. His game evokes one of elegance and beauty but burns like an inferno when it comes down to winning time. This guy can create shots out of nowhere, find open teammates even if he isn’t looking and seems to score at will when they need a basket. Short of unstoppable, you can only hope to slow him down. He’s a very good rebounding guard and triggers fast breaks which are usually finished by a Salva lay-up or a Slaughter dunk. These 3 guys will tow Ateneo back to the top on sheer will power.
4. Norman Black: Probably the greatest coach of the modern UAAP era. You cannot question 4 straight championships and a program blooming with talent. One can argue that he has had an easier task because of the talent level of his teams, but as a coach you know that it’s harder to make that talent work together and win a title. 4 rings, don’t complain.
5. 2006: A team with this much pride and championship experience will never let something like 06 happen again. I’m sure Coach Norman is making doubly sure that they know what happened and how it felt after.
X-Factor: Ryan Buenafe: Never leave this guy alone in the last 2 minutes. He’s proven every single time that he can kill you in the clutch. EVERY SINGLE TIME.
Last Thoughts: Ateneo has used experience and championship savvy to get them through their toughest challenges and Thursday will be the same; they are too experienced and too wary of what UST can do to let the Tigers catch them off balance.
Yesterday, my dad tasked me to do a short but sweet write-up for the team to be used in this year’s UAAP press-con.
Rise UP. For too long we’ve borne the brunt of being the proverbial cellar dweller. We are often miscast as the doormat of the UAAP; the perennial whipping boys of the league. This team aims to be different than before. No more losing, no more being the butt of jokes of the casual fan. This year’s team will be different. We believe that we have the talent to be competitive in this year’s UAAP tournament. We have rookies who will be able to contribute and of course, our dependable seniors who are more than able to take the responsibility of pushing the team up the ladder, rung by rung. It is time for us to Rise UP, to do whatever it takes to buck the trend and change the misconceptions, whatever it takes to win. Walang takot, kahit kanino.
Beginner’s luck? Hopefully not.
Yesterday was the first time I’ve watched Powerade play live. Yes, I know I should have watched more games. The thing about watching games, especially of this magnitude, it’s so frustrating not being involved or being helpless to the fact that you’re just watching idly as a team you root for plays inside the court. As a coach, I’d rather be coaching right there in that situation than watching in the stands and reduced to yapping at the ref from a distance. It really is very frustrating.
I’m glad Powerade won this game, albeit the (almost) costly mistakes they committed at the end (that’s on you Sean Anthony). People were ready to see a TnT sweep, but like the title says Powerade lives on to die another day. I know that this is such a big coaching cliche, but the key to winning this game was composure. This was something the team did not have the past 2 games. Closing out a Finals game is tough enough, closing out a team like TnT in a Finals game is nigh impossible. Of course, a little luck is always good; Alapag missing that last three point shot, Castro choking at the line are just some breaks that Powerade finally caught. It was about time really.
One more crucial factor for victory was the play of Rommel Adducul. His stats (11 points, 9 rebs, 3 blocks) show it, but the fact that he was aggressive and being a threat to the TnT bigs gave the Powerade guards some room to operate outside. That was a vintage performance turned in by Mr. Adducul.
Sidenotes: TnT’s bench depth is crazy scary. Their second unit is good enough to start on another team. They’re like a poker player who has all the chips and keeps on going all in to scare off the opposing player. That team is literally ten guys deep.
Anybody else notice that Kelly Williams’ is just a shell of his former MVP self? Reduced to being a role player on a team filled with stars; it saddens me to see one of the best Filipino American basketball players I have ever seen reduced to scrapping for lose balls and not developing into the player we all know he could have been. It might be because of the sickness that took him out for a year, it could be something else. But hopefully NEXT CONFERENCE, he finds his form again.
Another thing, what’s that 6 foot 9 athletic freak of a man doing riding the pine??? I know Japheth is maddeningly inconsistent, or maybe he as another problem we don’t know about, or maybe because TnT is where careers go to dry up and die in exchange for money and championships, at this point I don’t really know anymore.
GAME FIVE! It’s gonna be a wild Sunday night at the Dome!
Being the doormat team in any basketball league is never fun. Called by many names (Easy win, sure win, stats game, etc.) a weak team is almost always looked over. For the Powerade Tigers, it was not any different.
The situation we have in UP is eerily similar to Powerade; a team that’s rebuilding coming off a terrible season with low expectations. Powerade’s sudden rise to the top of the PBA surprised a lot of people, including me. Who would have thought that a team looked over so many times that you forget when they last won something meaningful would make it to the semis much less the finals?
Of course I want Powerade to win. That’s my dad’s team. It’s an easy and obvious decision. Buoyed by the addition of two crack rookies, this team surpassed expectations and made it all the way to the top of the heap. Some might say they would just be happy to be there. BUT POWERADE HAS TO WIN.
Why? Because Powerade by being the Cinderella story they are has captured and allured the Filipinos like only a true underdog can. Now they actually play for Juan Dela Cruz on every corner, working hard to make an honest living. Going up against a market giant like Talk N Text with their plethora of basketball stars and limitless resources, the Filipino basketball fan has finally found someone to root for (aside from Ginebra of course). They are doing this for the common man. The person who people thought would not amount to anything but made something out of himself.
I might be over thinking this, what I say might not be true to everyone. But dammit, a true underdog story like this only comes once every God knows when. We love this, we are all underdogs. Call me a dreamer, call it a fantasy, but in a world where Powerade wins a championship, all would be OK. People will see that the common man’s team can be something, make something out of themselves. That you don’t need gross amounts of money and talent to be someone.
This series represents more than just companies and sports, it’s the mindset that’s ingrained in us everyday; underdogs never win. This is why Powerade HAS to win. Show people that they can do it; be whatever they want to be and not give a fuck about what other people think they should be.
Root for the underdog, will them to win. It’s history, it’s destiny, it’s a once in a lifetime story that will be in the hearts of every Juan Dela Cruz in this country. The day little old Powerade stunned the world.
FIGHT THE POWER!
