Little Amount Of News, Lots And Lots Of Commentaries

When you got too many sporting news on and off the court for the past week, one can’t help but to talk about it. Let’s go!!!

Thursday noontime: PSL files a complaint.

A complaint was filed before the NBI on former PSL officials over alleged embezzlement of league funds. Nothing really to talk about here because everyone inside the PSL isn’t really that much bothered with all the publicity the issue will get. From the vibe of what is going on inside the league while all of these are happening, it’s like a big “wala lang… yun lang.” thing. Something must be done to correct the mistakes that have committed, and that’s it… let’s move on. Analyzing it on a deeper level, it seems that this was a very calculated move and everyone running the league – the board, team owners, sponsors – knew everything about this before they made this public move, and we, the people, able to know it last. The reason? Their responsibility to the fans is to give us the best volleyball competition this country could ever see, and getting us, the public, involved in this issue will not do anything good to that responsibility. They won’t make any move that will ruin that responsibility to us fans, so let’s leave them at that.

Funny thing though… PVL fans who hate the PSL so much found this as a very big deal, where they got one big issue on their own. We’ll get to that later.

Thursday afternoon: FIBA sanctions are served

Suspensions on the 10 players and two coaches of Gilas. Suspensions on the three players of Australia. Fines on Gilas and Australia. I’m pretty sure you have read the full details of the sanctions on both countries elsewhere. I’m just here to tell you that to me, this was a pretty fair sanction. A very reasonable one. My initial reaction when I have read the whole details of the sanction was “it could have been worse.” But to further put some more spices on the recipe, so to speak, here are other things that can be added or further detailed on those sanctions:

1) The SBP can order the host venue, Philippine Arena, to take a share on the fine pie. From what I am aware of, the venue provided the security in that game. So since fans got involved, they have a shared blame on this one.

2) FIBA should give a share of the Boomers’ fine to SBP for the physical damage because of the decal removal. The cost of reprinting that costs something too, and Philippine Arena is claiming that it also permanently damaged the floor because of the errant procedure in removing those decals. So there, Philippine Arena… you lose some, you get some too.

Before I proceed, take note that the referees who worked that game got suspended for a year. They won’t be able to work on international and continental games. Hope they got inter-barangay games on their respective countries to work on their judgment on calls.

One more thing… high five, Allein Maliksi!

Thursday evening: Future plans for the SBP/Gilas

First thing we talked about after scrutinizing the sanction was the venue of the next home game in September against Qatar. Since we are going to play that in a closed door venue – no fans allowed - there’s no reason to use those big-ass venues such as Smart-Araneta Coliseum or Mall of Asia Arena. So, where to?

1) Cuneta Astrodome – also known as Punyeta Astrodome.

2) Ynares Center, Antipolo – favorable for people who are near in Antipolo who will be working that game. One thing though, there are not enough rooms there to house different offices during the game.

3) Filoil-Flying V Center / San Juan Arena – a value-for-money venue. It got kick-ass air-conditioning too.

4) San Andres Gym – if we can’t have it in San Juan, then we could use another “San”, the San Andres Gym. Favorable to me, because I live in Manila. That’s just the plain advantage of it.

5) Meralco Gym – a couple of guys from SBP’s suggestion. Gilas home court.

If you have a venue on your mind where we can play the next home game which is closed door, drop a comment in this post and also tell a reasonable yet quirky reason on why the FIBA game can be played there.

Another glaring topic perhaps are the people who’ll fill in for the suspended players. Our immediate reaction? Ang daming player! It wasn’t a concern to us. For that reason, let’s save that issue for another time.

Another high five, Allein Maliksi!

Saturday: PSL Invitationals Semifinals

Three things about the Saturday matches.

1) If Generika-Ayala played the way how they played Sta. Lucia that day in the quarterfinals against Smart-Army, Petron might have a different opponent in the semis.

2) The match between F2 Logistics and Cignal is much, much closer than what it says in the stats sheet. It was an ultimate defensive showdown between the two teams. Jheck Dionela and Dawn Macandili digging those spikes left and right, middle blockers at work for both teams; rallies lasting for like an hour. Too bad Cignal dropped the first set via a 5-0 F2 Logistics run, and found trouble closing sets since then.

3) Petron and F2 Logistics is now the Manila Clasico of volleyball. “San Juan Clasico” to say the least, but it sounds too forced. People will find a name to this rivalry soon in a natural manner.

Saturday: NU dropping out of PVL CC

The sole reason of me looking forward to this PVL Collegiate Conference is that damn NU team today which I have been covering since their high school days. If anything, coach Babes Castillo just did a coach Ramil De Jesus system, where the seniors coach and coaching staff also handles the high school team in order to aid the transition of the team every time they will lose a player to graduation. See the wonder it did for De La Salle. Babes Castillo have a very strong high school team, they only lost a SINGLE set in the 2017 Rebisco Volleyball League out of the seven matches that they had. How could I not be excited to see them face a tougher competition?

Well, they had that Balipure team in the PVL RC… but it didn’t felt right for me. They got other players and imports in that team. I still wanted that same team I saw back in 2017. As one friend told me, “bali… pure ang gusto mo.” Exactly!

Press release of them dropping out was apparently “they were not ready”. It was pure baloney to me because:

1) Someone else is speaking for them.

2) They have been ready for years.

I would understand Ateneo backing out of this because they got a new coach and understandably, they would need some time to instill a new system before they can get into actual competition. But for this NU team… no way! However, I am not pinning the blame to NU. I know that exact team long enough for me to know that they will not back down from a challenge. Hell, they can be asked to play against Petron for a tune-up game tomorrow and they will play! It’s a golden opportunity specially for their young main gunners to get this experience playing against these seasoned players even for a mere exhibition match.

There, I said it… young main gunners. Reports have it that a rule change disallowed those young main gunners to play for the team this conference. If that is the case, then coach Babes will not really have a team. NU definitely not to blame.

Sayang lang… I was really looking forward to watching them play… that is, if it will be shown… AYOKO NGA PALANG MAGSALITA!

All week long: Ateneo De Manila Gilas Pilipinas

Can we just hand the UAAP Season 81 Men’s Basketball Championship to Ateneo right now? I mean, they raised a lot of hell in the Jones Cup! They scared the hell out of the Korean NT core, came close to the Canadians, gutted the Chinese Taipei’s NT insides that their fans felt ashamed of their own team, and sent a message to the Iranians that their days as an Asian powerhouse are numbered.

The only team that can defeat them in the UAAP are themselves. If they are going to be that pesky in defense… that active and precise in offense… and that enthusiastic yet humble in every game… there is NO WAY those seven other teams can beat them. ­

PBA and PSL finals are coming this week. Plus, I might start seeing some NCAA Basketball action. Have a good week ahead!

---

Follow me on Twitter and Instagram: @sportscastengr

This Week in Philippine Sports: UNLEASH!

Man, did we see a lot of revelations this past week.

Monday we saw how Generika-Ayala Lifesavers upset the Foton Tornadoes Blue Energy in the PSL Invitationals, thanks to their rejuvenated offense. Their defense were as lethal as ever as everybody is still mopping the floor with their bodies and jerseys, but the spring in the jump of Patty Orendain was surreal. If you think it's just a somehow exaggerated comparison on a person who jumps really, really high, then you got to see that woman jump and spike that volleyball really close so we can have that agreement that it is not an overreaction.

But how about Bang Pineda... it only took her like five sets in total this conference to complete the transition from a libero to a full-blown attacker. Although she is now a designated hitter, she never left her past life on the court behind. She and Kath Arado may form a sign on their side of the court that says "BAWAL BUMAGSAK ANG BOLA DITO!" whenever she's on the back row. On the front, her variety of attacks just hurt that Foton team that is suffering from a serious lack of floor defense.

One more thing before I move past the PSL... I have no idea how we are going to crown a Rookie of the Year or Rookie of the Conference or whatever, but the front-runner on that rookie award thing as of today must be Gyra Barroga. On her very first PSL match, she carried Cocolife's offense just when they were about to blow another set against UE. Defense paid high premium on her on their second match against Sta. Lucia, but she still managed to make some points. Thanks to her and to a bunch of underrated attackers, a lot won't be surprised if the asset managers be able to squeak in to the semifinals.

Since this blog has been my outlet for anything Gilas and FIBA, this post won't be done without something to talk about Gilas. I came home excited to see how Gilas will dismantle Chinese-Taipei (yes, there was no doubt in my mind that we will take home the victory) in their game... and it happened via two notable performances.

1) June Mar Fajardo - don't look now Asia, but PHI is about to release "The Kraken". As the qualifiers progress, his game in the international play progresses as well. Increased point output... increased physical presence down low... increased confidence in his tricks as well, making Tseng Wen Ting victim number two on his fake pass. Keep it up, abai!

2) Terrence Romeo - my tweet after the game said it best... 25 minutes, 14 points, six assists, ZERO turnovers. Jayson Castro might have another FIBA Asia Cup in him (that is on 2021) but it looks like Bro is ready to take over as soon as now.

Of course there all the old reliables... Andray Blatche's skill set, Blur's playmaking, Gabe Norwood's defense, coach Chot Reyes' profanities (sorry coach, the TV camera caught you cursing in tagalog which was pretty obvious when one lip reads it, but still an old reliable way to wake our troops up), and Kuya Bong Tulabot.

I'll see you all in Philippine Arena on Monday!!!

This Week in Philippine Sports: Petronovela Season II

I cannot believe that this entire week full of volleyball championships, Gretchen Ho, Wensh Tiu, Manila Clasico, and Junel Baculi's moment of "I need to make a bad decision in my coaching career right now." in replacing Justin Williams, will be overshadowed by some series that must be produced by one of the Kardashians; the Petronovela.

Season I recap: Olsen Racela was the head coach and Rajko Toroman is the "Team Consultant" (Seriously, what does this do? Coach the head coach?) on paper. In reality, Toroman is Jack Sparrow while Olsen was the parrot (And Jay Washington is the maltreated slave in the ship. Even though it was or it was not in the movie, every pirate ship has one maltreated slave.). Petron kept on losing. Management threw Toroman away, and Petron kept losing. The consolation they've got? Stability in the coaching department. Maybe they needed that one more than wins (cut to Jay Washington throwing the mop away and happily hopping all over the ship.).

Season II: Here we are right now. Just when we all thought it was over, somebody ordered a second season of it. Since it's still relatively new, we can break it down episode by episode.

Prologue: The star of the series is named Renaldo Balkman. Former NBA player and the import of the Petron Blaze Boosters. 6'6" dude, athletic, plays like he's drinking Red Bull all the time, and he has tattoos in his eyelids. 5-1 win-loss record in hia name, greater than expected averages, and he has tattoos in his eyelids.

Episode 1: The Bad Day

- They were up against an Alaska team who is playing the most incredible basketball since Tim Cone left them... and they came from a loss prior to that game. Every team's mindset after a loss is bounce back... and bounce back they did in the usual awesome fashion. Going to the other side, Petron is not having their usual day even though Alex Cabagnot was back. While Petron is not having their usual game, Balkman is having a very bad day. He went like two out of infinity in the field, and Alaska defended him so well.  Come the final 20 seconds of the game, after missing a lightly defended shot his tantrums started, beginning with the referees (Someone forgot to tell him the very important note in PBA officiating: one does not simply understand PBA referees.). Then he started to see all red and Digivolved to a Spanish toro, shoving everyone behind looking for that red cloth. Then Arwind Santos came in trying to sober up Balkman. Just as Arwind pushed him back, Balkman saw the red cloth in Arwind's neck, thus the choking that was seen around the world. It was already past 10 PM and sports news are still blowing up with items from the strangling incident.

Episode 2: AKTV Center

- Balkman was scheduled to guest even before Petronovela Season II existed, so AKTV people were in luck! Ratings! Plus Manila Clasico was happening... Ratings! Balkman and Arwind making up... Bullshit! Just kidding... but seriously, I was making fun of the entire incident by that night. Here are some unpublished tweets that got stuck in my head.

Sinakal mo ako sa harap ng sambayanang Pilipino. #youdontdothattome

While Balkman choking Arwind, " Yo mama taste like Honey Nut Cheerios!"

Latrell Sprewell picture, "That Renaldo Balkman... he's my greatest student..."

WWE Creative might be calling Balkman right now to tag him up with Kane.

But really, that sequence in the AKTV center was so uncomfortable. Perhaps they should've used a guest host too to interview them, like Cristy Fermin???

Episode 3: The Commissioner's Office

- Balkman, and probably the entire organization, said that he's willing to accept the punishment the league will impose in him. Commissioner Chito Salud might have said, "ah ganon ah... sige eto parusa mo!"

250,000 Php fine.

Lifetime ban in the league.

Balkman is not saying a word up to now... as we know it, presumably he accepted his fate. Before we get to the fourth episode, allow me to make my opinion regarding the sanction...

If he had choked somebody in the Alaska team instead, he might have escaped the ban for life part. He has atleast an ounce of logical reason to choke an opposing player. He caressed my butt or breathed into my ears might give him a reason to do that. But choking a team mate? Why??? Because Arwind played bad that's why they are losing? If that was the case, then Arwind should have strangled Balkman instead, because he was so terrible in that game. Absence of proper reasoning was the merit of the sanctions... FOR ME.

Then accountability kicks in. We're gonna hear this word an awful lot of times this season so pay attention. Balkman choked Arwind in front of a decent-size crowd, in front of a live TV, on a very important game, on a Friday night. Using some Newton's Law of Broadcast Relativity Rating (I totally made that up, but sounding it more scientific makes it more believable.), some six million people saw it nationwide... and square that a couple of times due to Internet sharing and memes. Some 30 million people saw what he did to his team mate. Even if he apologizes to Arwind and to the fans, what he did was wrong and some 30 million people can attest to that. And that some 30 million people would say, "We accept your apology but you have to pay for what you did so you'd never ever do that again." For the league, they're protecting their interest of "that should never happen again", thus imposing such sanctions. Yes the penalty was harsh, but the absence of reasoning in his actions resulted in a pretty harsh incident that was seen by a pretty harsh number of people. Kwits!

Episode 4 (I thought we'd never get here): Upper Management.

His agent thought it was too harsh. Coaching staff thougt it was too harsh. Upper management thought it was too harsh. And some motherfucking idiot gave upper management the idea of "re-evaluating" their participation in the PBA. It's still a relatively small incident really; not as huge as steroids or fil-shams or downright terrible Harlem Shake videos. It doesn't warrant an involvement from the upper-upper management, where the three SMC teams are involved. Just because your temporary recruit misbehaved so bad, you wanna re-evaluate your participation in the league? One player lost his job and you're thinking about losing the job of 70 others from your own people???? It's like SMC tolerating and SUPPORTING the action of their foreign recruit whic put their OWN player in harm's way. God! I wanna shoot that idiot in the head and feed his brains to the zombies!

Can we save the drama some other time, and let's just play basketball? 



Follow me: @sirjaydelacruz
Mail me: jhaydelacruz46915@gmail.com

This Week in Philippine Sports: Belga Knows Fakes.

I know I'm quite a loser of a sports fan because I missed a "thriller" of a volleyball game between DLSU (Wensh Dear!) and Ateneo (Greta Beybe!). But with a personal purpose in life that happened to coincide with that day would make one feel just okay (Translation: I just got my long awaited phone bitches!). So forgive me if I concentrate on just one game. But this one game deserves a lot of things to talk about. Let's get it on!

- The science behind Beau Belga's shot fake is close to inexistence. This is one of the moments where you're watching ROS on TV with your friends, see them run their high-low play, see Belga receive the ball at the top of the key, and then suddenly execute a betting game with your friends in a split second and see if Beau will shoot or fake and drive. That bears an almost equal probability as a toss coin. His starting form for a jump shot and a shot fake is really the same; heck it's even hard to identify it when you play and replay AND replay the game tapes! The bad news is, when you don't go for the shot fake and just let him shoot, he's as dead eye as his teammate Jeff Chan. So I pretty much understand where Vernon Macklin was going through when he kept biting those shot fakes over and over again.

- The next painful thing after that bait, he'll do Jason Castro moves... ALL THE TIME! Last night? He kicked out that ball to an open teammate for a three. He drove hard to the basket getting lay-ups, fouls, and and-ones. He drops it to another teammate inside after making help defenders commit. HE'S MAKING HELP DEFENDERS COMMIT TO HIM! And he's not even a third-option-on-offense type of guy. Where is this world going?

- This makes me think that the line "What a Jason Castro move by Beau Belga!!" will evolve from being witty to "Holy kamote! The opposing team is in serious trouble."

- When Ginebra was stacking losses like small empty balikbayan boxes, I always thought that one part of the problem was LA Tenorio passing too much. He passes up open makeable three pointers for drives headed to nothingtown, and kick it out again, leaving his teammates clueless on what to do with the ball. The worst part is he'll pass up those threes with defenders still four or five feet away, giving defenders a better chance to stop his dribble penetration. Even though he was going like 3-8s or 2-9s from the field I still believed he shot less. Last night's game proved me right. He didn't pass those open threes and made them. I believe he made double digit points and shot well last night... and almost won!

- Now why did they lose? Free throws. It will not lead to those tense moments down the stretch had they made those free throws. If only Macklin had made a couple more and Mark Caguioa nailing those three straight free throws instead of missing then, then we might have ourselves a tied 2-4 Manila Clasico.

- Speaking of those tense moments down the stretch, this is where chemistry kicks in. That play where Kerby Raymundo tossed the ball over to the table officials, it was easy to decipher... Kerby thought LA was already running ahead when he passed that ball. Apparently LA was just standing there waiting for him. Kerby let his instinct rule over his senses, thinking he was passing the ball to Roger Yap. It resulted to turnover. Kerby then got a lot of unnecessary heat for that one, throwing his relatively great game out of the door.

- While we're at it, how LA and Macklin playing good music together is such a pleasure to watch. Like how many alley-oops did they made? 41?

- And how many fouls was called out of those 41 alley-oops? 138! Goodness! Those phantom fouls was close to unbearable. It made me wanna pluck those whistles down to the referees' throats. If the commissioner's office decides to review the calls of the entire game, those three refs will be suspended by next game day.

- Last thing... ROS is doing this winning thing minus Jeff Chan. Once Jeff returns, this would be interesting.

See you next week!


follow me: @sirjaydelacruz
email me: jhaydelacruz46915@gmail.com

This Week in Philippine Sports: PBA Referees, Close Games, and You

Wild week in the PBA, and I missed the most of it due to a shitload of day work. But that's okay... I've got it all covered... well, almost.

- Here's how I think the coaches can save themselves from what they see as "The Wrath of the Referees During Close Games at the End.": play a great basketball game the entire 48 minutes; keep them at bay, if possible get a 20 plus point lead... because above all the purpose of it is to win (which will eventually make the fans happy with the win), and to avoid the sometimes inevitable "cardiac" games (translation: DON'T blow huge leads!). Again, AVOID! Let's not say that PBA referees are downright incompetent, but their level of competency is inconsistent. When games are loose, they perform well. When games are close, everyone's nerves are starting to shake... even the referees. The difference is, the teams got clutch players; referees, I'm not sure. Maybe the proposal of training PBA referees abroad is a way you can instill them how to be clutch as well.

- Here's one reason why you don't blame referees during a loss on a close game because it's the team's fault all along: the Meralco-GlobalPort game last night. Proper execution of their offense lead to that last play. Sure their defense was great for a good eight seconds, but the thing is there was 9.5 seconds remaining on the game. What happened on the remaining 1.5? This!

- Speaking of GlobalPort, they do realize that they should be 4 and 1 right now had they not blow up everything they have made in the first three quarters of their Barako Bull and Meralco game.

- San Mig Coffee had a quick transformation this past weekend. From a low-card jobber to Rain or Shine last Friday to going John Cena mode on Talk n Text last night. Mark Barroca starting to be the point guard Tim Cone wanted him to be. Tell me what's next for the mixers? The WWE Champion?

- And damn those Texters! They ruined my dream of a Manila Clasico with the first win on the line. Both of them at 0 and 6 when they face-off on March 10. That would be fantastic!

- Quick UFC thoughts before wrapping it up; UFC should impose a smaller cage whenever Lyoto Machida will fight, Ronda Rousey executes an armbar better than half of the UFC roster (All of them men. Rousey and Liz Caramouche are by far the only women mixed martial artists in the UFC.), and Josh Koscheck getting beat down is something you don't see in a lifetime.

 
That's all this week! Enjoy!

follow me: @sirjaydelacruz 
mail me: jhaydelacruz46915@gmail.com