Coaching Carousel: Team MVP Edition (Uichico to TNT)

Jong Uichico, arguably the most successful of the Ron Jacobs coaching apostles, will be back on the sidelines in the coming 40th PBA season by way of the Talk 'n' Text Tropang Texters.

See, personnel wise, there shouldn't be anything wrong with the Texters. That they should've won or at the very least challenged the San Mig Coffee Mixers the entirety of this season instead of winning big in the elimination rounds of the three conferences before bowing out in the Playoffs.

Save for a few additions, this is still now Gilas Pilipinas' head coach Chot Reyes' Texters. They lost Ali Peek to retirement and added two versatile scores in Nino Canaleta and Danny Seigle while keeping the core in place, so you could understand where management's frustrations with Black would come from.
From the outside looking in, the Texters are built to play small ball but Black had them playing traditionally. Guys were boxed into their positions instead of the organized chaos that is one of the tenets of the highly successful dribble drive offense. Hell, Black spent the entire season trying to resuscitate the career of his old ward Nonoy Baclao which at times would ruin the team's on court chemistry in terms of being accountable for one's self offensively (defensively, Baclao held his own but could've been better on the boards).

Exit Black, enter Uichico-- who, by now, is already all too familiar with the high octane offense preferred by the Texters. He's been helping Gilas the last few years, so that in itself should erase any doubts or talks of coaching rust.

Also, with all the machismo going around the sidelines lately (almost like everyone wants to take a page off Yeng Guiao's playbook and go for the gung ho, temperamental/ passionate coaching style i.e. Pido Jarencio, Junel Baculi, Luigi Trillo, etc.), having the Filipino Zenmaster back would be a welcome sight.

Coaching wise, Ranidel de Ocampo should benefit the most from having Uichico around. After all, the multi-titled coach won a lot with big men Danny Ildefonso and later on Eric Menk, so working with a more polished, Euro-big like RDO should be quite entertaining and maybe take the talented big man to even greater heights.

It should also be noted that Uichico helped the career of Olsen Racela by a mile, turning him from an energy off the bench guy to one of the league's finest court generals. Black relied on Alapag to run the Texters albeit too much this season, when we should already be in the nth phase of the "team endorsement" to Castro.

Player development and just a return to what was working pre-Black, these are some of the things we'd love for Uichico to tackle once the season starts.