The Untaming of The Beast

#LetAbuevaBeAbueva

The Alaska Aces are currently lording it over the new PBA season thanks to a hot 3-0 start in the ongoing PBA Philippine Cup.

They've dropped the nuances and intricacies of the Triangle Offense in favor of head coach Alex Compton's fast-paced, open-court style that he probably (most likely) inherited from his assistant coach Louie Alas after playing for him in the now defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association with the Manila Metrostars (with a few upgrades here and there owing to Compton's innate love for learning the game). This new style has resulted in higher scores, an uptempo approach that plays to the strengths of the Aces' boat load of high scoring (by career or by rep) guards and basically, because of the higher number of possessions on offense, every one is kept happy because they all get touches.

But none of them are probably happier than Calvin Abueva, who is currently on a tear of the league averaging 19 points and 9 rebounds in TWENTY MINUTES per game. Not to mention that he did put up an insane 26 points and 22 rebounds monster effort against league powerhouse Talk 'n' Text (plus sinking the Sam Cassell "big balls dance"-worthy game winner) just a few days back.


Let's rewind a bit to last season's PBA Governor's Cup wherein then head coach Luigi Trillo resigned from his post just a few games in.

While the reason to his resignation remains a complete mystery to this very day (he's now happily serving as assistant coach to Norman Black at Meralco), we all thought that it would signal the end to the Aces' "new swag." After all, Trillo is the guy who is generally credited for coaxing the Aces' management to take a chance on the un-Alaska-est player of them all in Abueva through the PBA Draft.

A PBA Rookie of the Year award and a PBA Commissioner's Cup title justified Trillo and Abueva, but once the losses started coming in... well, we could only speculate that it played a part in Trillo's dismissal (by his choice or not).

How bad did the Aces go last season? They were blown out by 41 51 by Rain or Shine right? Post Trillo? Abueva looked sluggish. There was no swag. They took a hit. People were even speculating on the franchise being on sale.

Well, hush.

Coach Compton opened up the offense to allow the freelancing Abueva to shine. Coach Compton, though still playing Abueva half the game, is giving him more time with the basketball-- to create, to decide, to call plays.

To. Call. Plays.

Mind-boggling.

Where Trillo opted to use Abueva as a sparkplug who'd lift his teammates, Compton is actually looking to make Abueva learn on the court-- hit or miss. So far he's been hitting, but he'll miss eventually like before only this time, since he's the guy calling the shots, will be able to learn from it. Instead of simply waiting for scraps. Or a JVee Casio pass. Abueva is actually learning to play the 2-3 spot on the fly (helps to have a steadying veteran presence in Dondon Hontiveros as your running mate too).

Of the guys currently making waves, Abueva would probably be the odd man out. Kelly Williams, Junemar Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar are all dominating as forward-centers. Stanley Pringle is up there. Alex Cabagnot is shooting his way into the conversation. The last two being guards and all.

But Abueva?

Generously listed on some PBA sites at 6"3 and weighing 185 lbs?

He's simply being Abueva.