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KUALA
LUMPUR—At 2-0 in a five-team field and with the
strength—and especially the weakness—of Indonesia and
Singapore no longer a mystery, the RP-Nokia Youth team
could very well be labeled as champions of the seventh
Southeast Asia Basketball Association Junior Men
Championship.
But for
head coach Franz Pumaren and his battery of staff who
would not leave anything to chance, the job is not done
yet. In fact, they intend to go all-out in their two
remaining games against the Indons at 9 p.m. Sunday and
the Singaporeans at 6 p.m. on the last day, Monday at
the Maba Gym here.
 We’re
still going to play hard,” said Pumaren Sunday noon, as
the entire delegation celebrated the 45th birthday of
team manager and TAO Corp. head Julio Sy Jr. at the Seri
Angasa revolving restaurant atop the Kuala Lumpur Tower.
“I believe the boys are going for a clean slate and we
are going for the juggernaut.”
The
Philippines was champion of the Seaba Junior Men in
2004, but was unable to defend in 2006 because of the
International Basketball Association (Fiba) suspension
on the country that lasted almost two years.
“We are
considering our last two games as carryovers to the
Asians,” explained Pumaren. “We don’t want to create bad
habits here. We want to end the campaign on a winning
note.”
In this
championship for young men aged 18 or younger and where
the top two would advance to the Fiba-Asia level in
September in Tehran, the Filipinos have become not only
the favorites but the barometers of sorts. And that’s
what’s keeping the team on its toes for its last two
outings.
“We have
shown what we could do, and we have become the barometer
here. That’s why every team here would like to play its
best when it plays us,” said Pumaren. “And with that, we
could not relax.”
Malaysia
was a scare in the first two quarters on opening day
Thursday, but then, the hosts went for the aggressive
press early and could not last long enough and lost,
98-67. In that game where the Filipinos were calculating
and furious from all over, three Malaysians suffered
cramps one after the other—and so did their bid to top
the event on home soil.
The
Filipinos were no different Friday against the Thais,
coached by a familiar American face in the region—Felton
Sealy, a former Phoenix Suns draftee.
Against
the Thais, though, the Filipinos were very much on their
toes early and went on to book their second massacre,
92-76.
And all
of a sudden, the competition was reduced to which team
would join the RP-Nokia Youth five in the
Iran
continental championship—where the topnotcher would
advance to the worlds.
Malaysia
made sure—as what it looked forward to when the rules
were changed in a manner that the top two, and not just
the champion, would advance to the Fiba-Asia
championship—that it would be representing the region
with the Philippines.
Backed
by a boisterous and flag-waving home crowd and already
armed with the lesson of not pressing early to be in
shape all four quarters, the Malaysians blasted away at
the Thais, 85-68.
On the
same Saturday night when the Filipinos spent the day off
watching movies at the mall and savoring home-cooked
adobo prepared by former broadcaster now Kuala
Lumpur-based Teresa Guanzon, the Singaporeans, the
youngest-looking among the five participants, sent the
Indons reeling, 68-50.
With two
playing days to go, the Philippines was alone on top
unscathed and looked to sweeping the tournament;
Malaysia was at second, secured of the trip to Iran;
Singapore could go home with some pride with 1-2; and
Indonesia would need to deeply evaluate its junior
program with 0-2.
Skipper
has sweep in mind
FRANK
GOLLA, the team captain, was quick to thank the coaching
staff—Pumaren, his brother Dindo, Raul Mario Lacson,
Sandy Arespacochaga, Gerardo Santiago and Dan Rose—for
his inclusion on the team.
But
halfway through the job, Golla, nephew of ex-pro and
multititled coach Joel Banal and cousin to Banal’s son
Gabriel, who is also with the team, would want that
sweep.
“We’ll
even play harder,” said Golla. “It would be sweet if we
sweep.”
Inspiring poem from manager’s son
AFTER
that sumptuous buffer lunch at the KL Tower, Sy opened a
short talk by reading a poem his 13-year-old son Jay
wrote only on Saturday.
Everyone
on the entire delegation was moved by the poem, and
eventually were delighted by Sy’s surprise—everyone on
the team would receive an extra month’s allowance for
May, when they get back to the Philippines and to their
respective families, and would be joining TAO Corp.’s
annual vacation in Bangkok in June.
Besides
his wife Pia and his other kids Sage and Annika, Sy was
also joined here by TAO Corp.’s Ito Lopa, the
hard-working assistant team manager, Val Victa and Joey
Lopa.
On hand
to assist the team is Pato Gregorio, executive director
of the Basketball Association of the Philippines-Samahang
Basketbol ng Pilipinas, and Art Aro, also of the BAP-SBP,
as well as Vicar Tolentino, son of the late vice
president Arturo Valentino, whose son Joseph Emmanuel
has been lethally manning the point for the team. |
