Bo's to blame

Can Coach Bo get the Bataan Bomber a ring before its all over?

Much has been said about the Powerade Tigers’ unbelievable, nay, magical run to the PBA Philippine Cup Finals. Hurdling powerhouse and top seed B-Meg Llamados in two games before prevailing over the gritty, well-balanced yet youthful Rain or Shine Elasto Painters in the semifinals.

Alas, the magical ride has to stop somewhere much like it did for Cinderella when the clock struck 12.

The Tigers’ stayed true to form, sticking to what brought them to the big dance—enticing opponents to play their style in a good, old fashion shootout where their advantage in top notch scorers are highlighted and failures at the defensive end are, at the very least, minimized.

Problem is, they are doing it against a team that has no qualms about playing any style of basketball—the defending champions, Talk ‘n’ Text Tropang Texters.

Perasol has his Tigers believing in themselves and having each other’s backs on the floor—an admirable trait and commendable act for a coach. His words to the media are fixated on positives such as “believing,” “fighting” and “winnable.” But we all know the truth.

In game 3’s most crucial moments, Perasol failed to call time-outs TWICE. One right after Jimmy Alapag’s lead-getting three pointer in the dying seconds—forgotten/ forgiven only because of JVee Casio’s heroics. And the other, in overtime when the Texters were starting to pull away and his Tigers were bent on just throwing up shots and not running plays for each other.

Another mistake was Perasol entrusting Sean Anthony, who was playing out of his mind on offense (and, well, on the defensive end but to a negative slant) to try and guard a rampaging Ranidel de Ocampo (Dr. de Ocampo) in the 4^th. Yes, they had the luxury of having the lead at the time, but the Texters were slowly chipping away and drawing fouls which is the biggest reason why TNT almost won in regulation.

Some of the other “what ifs” that can be taken against Perasol is his opting for trigger happy point guard Celino Cruz (who made some timely baskets in the series, to his credit, but still shoots too much and does a lot of “heat checks”) over rookie free agent Rudy Lingganay (who, just months ago, was arguably the ASEAN Basketball League’s best PG and almost got his team into the Finals).

Another one is Ricky Calimag. A sturdy power forward who has a knack for drilling in top of the key jumpers, this guy has the muscle to make things difficult for Dr. De Ocampo and more discipline than Alex Crisano (who has been sparingly used in the Finals, thank God). For Perasol’s sake, we pray that Calimag’s injured or hurt otherwise, he could’ve been a big contributor for the Tigers’ weak frontline.

When the Tigers escaped the Elasto Painters in seven games, Perasol admitted that he was coaching for his job together with his staff. That team manager JB Baylon has put them all on notice (probably because they had the best line-up possible since the Chot Reyes-Jeff Cariaso years). Right now, we don’t see Perasol receiving the boot just yet. Not with this impressive showing and system (more or less) that has been bought into by the Tigers’ and its growing number of fans.

We do pray however, the Gary David (now 34) wins a title at some point while he’s still in his prime and not a la Jun Limpot (who won it at the end of his career with Purefoods).