Collegiate pre-season musings Part 1

The thing about the pre-season is it is simply... the pre-season. It doesn't follow that if one plays well then that means it will carry over to a team's main collegiate league.

For example, watching San Beda skewer Mapua doesn't gauge how good exactly the three-peat champs are because they faced totally inferior competition. But then again, it does say a lot about what the Cardinals will be like in the NCAA -- bottom feeders. What does that say about Mapua? They were ill-prepared and ill-equipped when they ran a small rotation that hardly gave confidence to the bench warmers.

As for San Beda, the Ogie Menor saga is officially over. After leaving the team (over alleged disputes with the SBP contract and pressure from team officials), he decided to make a comeback. The as of two days ago, he's gone again and will apply for the PBA Draft. There are supposed to be several reasons why he decided not to but at this point it doesn't matter.

Word is they'll try to get Borgie Hermida back as soon as possible but that doesn't seem possible. So the Red Lions will play without two offensive threats. But they will find some firepower from guys like JR Tecson (who doesn't know the meaning of asisst), Mar Villahermosa who was in the UE camp until they decided that the current exchange rate is more to their liking, Jake Pascual, Dave Marcelo, and Sudan Daniels.

The current Fil Oil roster lists Sudan's surnames sans the "s." I figure they'll get it right when he struts his Superman stuff. Wala palang "s" sabi ni Mike Abasolo.

But the Red Lions... sana they ran out clock in those last few seconds to Mapua. Chico Tirona was already waving off his teammates to kill the clock but instead the team ran a play when they were up by 30 points and JR Taganas launch a trey that hit the bottom of the net. Talo na naman di ba?

To the Bedans who took affront to the earlier post, apologies for that. But it is not an indictment of SBC hoops but simply the two evens I previously pointed out.

I like UP's build-up though. Pretty impressive. Now Coach Aboy has the team he wants so the pressure is on.

Holy Guacamole. No Migs De Asis in the line-up. But this team will not only be competitive but they'll even get better next season.

As for the Ateneo Blue Eagles... too many bigs and non-performing assets. Jai Reyes has filled the role of Chris Tiu by showing his leadership on the floor, rebouding, and hustling. That's all good but he is and will be overworked. I like Juami Tiongson as the back-up but this team needs a third PG. Don't even tell me that Eric Salamat or Ryan Buenafe will carry the ballhandling chores. That's not saying they can't but it is not their natural position.

I wish they had another forward or even a pure shooter who will open things up for the bigs. De Chavez, you say? Well, oks lang but when we say pure shooter who can rifle it out like nobody's business then let's talk Clark Bautista or Martin Reyes. And for the second straight year, two players who might have been a player for the Blue Eagles has gone on to UST (Bautista and Jeric Teng). We're doing Pido's recruiting for him!

The presence of someone who can light it up will help Rabeh Al-Husseini who should just play the game rather than exchanged barbs and elbows with everyone else. When you just get locked in, no one can stop you, Big Fella. You're the reigning MVP, everyone will be gunning for you including idiot fans especially the Dickhead Coaching Staff.

Back to outside shooting, I said last season that we got away without bombarding too much from the arc and without that, teams will double Rabeh every chance they get.

If they can get out to the races then they'll be hard to stop.

Looking at good teams, there are usually two or three players who average double-digits to lead their squad with the bonus points spread from the bench mob.

At this point, the team has four players who can pump in double-digits on any given day: Al-Husseini, Salamat, Reyes, and Buenafe. Ateneo will be tough but they'll need De Chavez, Salva, Baclao, and Tiongson to score.

Well, they have about a month more before they submit their UAAP line-up (barring an injury then the Fil Oil squad is it). Those NPAs should either be put on Team B.

I'm voting for no more cameos for Oping Sumalinog but playing time and an opportunity to score. If he and Tonino Gonzaga can add some points then that's good.

I'm all for dropping someone in favor of Alec Rivera as third guard.

And Mike, Vince, Nico, Frank, and Justin, no time to caddy to Rabs, you gotta step up now and put up points when the Big Guy is on the bench.

Again, it's the pre-season but so far the perimeter defense isn't in sync yet. Gotta get that fixed and I'm sure they'll address that.


Okay here's that fixed poster for the Ateneo-Simon Fraser U game up in the Great White North.

Hey, Eddie! Anything else wrong with this?