ABL Beermen is Banchero's Team

James Yap and Chris Tiu
have nothing on this cat

Make no mistake about it, the San Miguel Beermen currently plying its trade in the ASEAN Basketball League is now clearly Chris Banchero's team. Despite having PBA veterans Asi Taulava, Eric Menk and reigning ABL Most Valuable Player Leo Avenido in the fold, it's Banchero's playmaking (and newfound scoring) that's proving to be invaluable to the team.

At the moment, Banchero's comming off a stellar performance in yesterday's dumping of the Singapore JobStreet.com Slingers 73-53. Banchero led the Beermen with 16 points and some heady playmaking. We also saw the Fiipino-Italian looker playing a bit of shooting guard with new recruit, pint-sized point guard Jeric Fortuna now in the Beermen's fold. We're not big fans of Banchero's scoring prowess, but he does have some nifty go-to-moves and has the bodytype for it.


Currently sporting a 5-3 win-loss card just behind rivals and defending champions the Indonesia Warriors (7-2), the Beermen need all that Banchero can bring to the table if they are to make it back into the Finals. Last season's debut which ended in a humbling loss in the Finals should be a lesson for everyone, though this is a vastly retooled team save for holdovers Banchero and Avenido.

What we're loving about this team is that they were able to sign defensive-minded import Justin Williams who was ridiculously let go by PBA ball club GlobalPort Batang Pier. Williams immediately made an impact for the Beermen in the Slingers game by blocking 9 shots and changing/ altering a lot more. With Williams on the floor to anchor the defense, the rest became pretty easy for the Beermen.

We're just wondering if 2nd import, Brian Williams, will stay for the long run. Justin came in as a replacement for Matt Rogers who was filling in for the injured Gabe Freeman. It would be fun to see if the Beermen play Freeman and Justin together. Better yet, if Ronaldo Balkman is still in the San Miguel payroll, then the ABL's going to be in for a treat.