Ball Points (Inspired by patayangbutiki.com’s Butiki Bullets) (9-21-09)

• This will be portion of our blogsite wherein I’ll try to assemble basketball related news and provide my two cents' worth (Thank you for the beautiful lady for the correction on how to use two cents) about the topics. I’ll try to post daily just as long as I have a lot of free time.I promise I’ll keep it short compared to my other blog posts. As indicated in the title this portion was inspired by a portion of an excellent site, patayangbutiki.com’s Butiki Bullets. The name was suggested by the intelligent yet corny blaze.
• Apparently, DLSU’s Bader Malabes has been sent back to Bahrain as Rick said in his blog post and I think a couple of veterans like Ferdinand have been taken off the team because of their lack luster performance this season. Poor guy. I know he had a horrendous UAAP season but he did help DLSU win a championship. I think you can blame his struggles on his decision-making and his position this year. He was often placed at the 1 spot when Atkins went down with an injury. Why the hell are you going to place a bad decision maker at a position that requires an advanced understanding of the game? He was able to show his talent while playing the 3 spot and when he had guys like JV alongside him who can take the big shot and make the right decisions. He can definitely drive inside (not finish though) and hit an open 3 occasionally. At least Barroca’s been given a chance to graduate in FEU. This guy has been sent back to his home country and what happens now to his girlfriend?
• Thank God I can watch the PCCL this year. (Yes I don’t have BTV) I do hope that teams would take the PCCL seriously this year unlike last year when ADMU practically was playing with their bench. The PCCL is great venue where you can see competition between NCAA and UAAP schools. This also gives spectators a chance to see provincial schools and how their players (like Fajardo and Slautgher) can fare against players from Manila.
• Toyota will back in the PBL this coming season. At least the PBL will have 6 teams this years and that means more competition for my bet, the Oracle Titans. I’m just wondering, where will the PBL get their players this year. As far as I know, players with less than 2 years in the NCAA or UAAP are not yet allowed to join so guys like RR Garcia and Jeric Teng will not be in a PBL jersey yet. I’m not sure about this though. Of course you have the Gilas boys. Their schedule will probably not permit them to join their mother teams in the PBL this upcoming season. Then there’s the age limit of 25 years old which will even lessen the pool of players for the PBL.
• On a side note, what will happen to the Oracle Titans this year with the Barroca controversy. Glen Capacio is the head coach of the Titans and a lot of their players like Ramos and Sanga are part of their roster. Barroca has told through his agent that his relationship with his coach has been tarnished alreadyalthough Barroca might not even have the time to join Oracle this year with his schedule with Gilas. What will Mikee Romero do to resolve this and will this prevent him from achieving an 8-peat?
• There are a couple of come-back attempts by Davonn Harp and Antoine Walker. Davonn Harp? Isn’t he N years old already? I guess he can still push his way around with his muscles and I guess Asi and Mick are also N years old as well. If he does have something left in the tank, I’m sure Barako will be shipping him to a contender for some more cash. Antoine has always had an issue with his conditioning and it finally cost him his job. A lot of guys like Antoine and T-mac are finally doing their best to get into shape now that their future contracts are on the line. Money really does talk.
• The San Sebastian Stags have made history and achieved a record breaking 15-game winning streak. Of course it helps that the NCAA has 3 more teams (which means 6 more games than the normal 14 but with PCU being suspended this year it became 12+6 games for each team) and a handful of pushover teams this year. They did beat the 3-peat Red Lions and the ultra talented Heavy Bombers and they still had to play the games themselves. They also came in the season with a very underrated lineup so kudos to Coach Ato for doing such a brilliant job with this team. It's going to a be rough road to the Final 4 for them as they are set to face Letran, JRU and San Beda in their last 3 games. In the first game this Monday, Mapua looked like ADMU as they destroyed EAC with their crisp teamwork and execution.