OUTSIDE LOOKING IN: Mixers tie series; something's wrong with Best Player of Conference race process
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 18 Feb 2014
There are many ways to address the problem of fatigue in an athlete, or, for that matter, an entire team. One of them is water therapy being resorted to by many conditioning coaches in all sports.
OUTSIDE LOOKING IN, in fact, has encountered several cases of individual athletes and teams encountering tiredness sent to beaches or, to a certain extent swimming pools for the purpose of recovering energy spent by playing non-stop every playing day.
San Mig Coffee coach Tim Cone won't have none of this though. Confronted by the Mixers being burnt out after playing continuously every other day from the time the PBA Philippine Cup semifinal round opened shop last January 27, he opted one other way to solve problem without disrupting preparations in-between the Mixers best-of-seven series with Rain Or Shine for the All Filipino championship.
"No, I don't want to do that least we distract our preparations," Cone confided top this writer during a one-on-one post-game interview following his team's 80-70 trouncing of Elasto Painters in Game 2 of the finals series that tied the count to 1-1 last Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum.
So, how did he resolved the fatigue factor? Your boys looked very fresh, OUTSIDE LOOKING IN would like to know. No big deal actually, he insinuated. "I just rotated the boys all throughout the entire game and make sure none of them would get tired, he said.
"I was surprised, really that the guys came ready. I thought they might be tired a little bit tired after the game I (which RoS won, 83-80), but we came out strong, " Cone added.
Cone admitted though his boys didn't shoot that well in the first half, but added, they defended well resulting in their posting what turned out comfortable leads of, one time, 18 points in the third period. The rotation scheme proved effective with the Mixers keeping themselves strong and poised.
So effective was Cone's ploy, that it afforded him the luxury of resting starters James Yap, Mark Pingris and Joe Devance as early as halfway through the payoff period.
Cone's rotation scheme resulted in Pingris and Devance as the only Mixers who played 30 minutes and more with the former seeing action for 39 minutes and the latter for 32 minutes. Simon, the team's top scorer with 15 points was in the court only for 22 minutes while Yap tallied for only 24 minutes with 13 points. Barroca, likewise, afforded himself the much-needed rest.
The tactics, likewise, elicited valuable contributions from rookie Ian Sangalang who had 10 points and six rebounds in 22 minutes of action, Alex Mallari, Rafi Reavis, Justin Melton and even the seldom-used Jerwin Gaco.
With a two-day respite awaiting San Mig before meeting the Painters in Game 3 tomorrow, even RoS coach Yeng Guiao expressed expectation of another tight and exciting battle.
oOo
TRIVIA: Don't look now, but whoever will emerge the PBA Philippine Cup Best Player of the Conference will not really be the finest there is among the more than 200 campaigners carrying the colors of the 10 teams in the field . This is because none of the five candidates released by the league, are seeing action in the on-going best-of-seven series between San Mig Coffee and Rain Or Shine, the winner of which will be crowned the best All Filipino. The aspirants for the highest honor in what is supposed to be the most prestigious tournament the country's and Asia's first pro-league have been decided purely on the statistics they earned in the elimination round, quarterfinal and semifinal rounds. June Mar Fajardo and Arwind Santos, both of Petron Blaze led in the statistical points earned average with 38.8 and 35.8 average, respectively. The Petron duo were followed by Japeth Aguilar (35.2), of Barangay Ginebra, Jay Washington (34.5), formerly of Petron himself and now Globalport and Greg Slaughter (33.6), also of the Gin Kings. Despite their numbers, the 6-foot-9 Fajardo and Santos, the reigning league MVP, failed to carry the Boosters past the Final Four. The Boosters bowed to the Elasto Painters, 1-4, in their side of the best-of-seven semifinal series. So did Aguilar and Slaughter, whose Gins were beaten by sister team San Mig Coffee, 3-4, in their encounter for the right to play in the gold medal playoff. The Batang Pier of Washington could only reach the quarterfinal round. Only Coffee Mixers point guard Mike Barroca and no. 2 guard PJ Simon were in the top 20 of the Conference's to performers. Barroca, probably the only player to warn the Player of the Week honors thrice-in-a-row, lanced a far ninth in the standing, while Simon, undoubtedly one of those responsible for SanMig's advancing to the finals, was at the at bottom of the list at 20th.
What good were the statistical points earned by the five candidates if they could not even bring their teams to the championship playoff? The league's fanatics would like to know. Clearly, something's amiss in the selection of candidates based only on statistical points.
Certainly, there are several more top the statistical points that would have been considered. They are called the "intangibles."
As I pointed out in my previous column, statistics should not be the end and all in choosing individual awards. Statistic can only help decide, but statistics alone should not decide. Why not make public the top 10 or top 20 performers and let those voting decide on the players' merits.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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