Mind, body and Sol

Oye mi canto, we hear you Sol Train
(Photo courtesy of Sports5)

It's been a while, Mr. Mercado.

Starting anew with the Barako Bull Energy Cola after surprisingly being dealt by the San Miguel Beermen last conference (we honestly believe that whoever is in charge of that operation would trade his own mother for the right price/ player should push come to shove), point guard Sol Mercado is showing flashes of his old, "Sol Train" self (before getting hurt and slowed down a bit) with averages of 36.1 mpg, 14 ppg, 42.1%-2 pt, 11.1%-3 pt, 3.7 rpg, 4.7 apg.

We must admit, it was rather difficult to watch Mercado with the Beermen as he transitioned from lead, combo guard to a role-playing starter who had to split time with his "brother" Chris Ross, a player who, for all his tenacious defense, has about as many moves on offense as a basketball newbie.

With the Energy, Mercado is back to his old ways though with a lot more maturity and a fresh, new team-first mindset.

The 30-year-old Biola University standout is making the most of the minutes given to him by head coach Koy Banal, as the driving force on offense for a team that simply has no star power to speak of outside of maybe RR Garcia's collegiate accomplishments. Mercado is also finding it a lot easier to slash and create thanks to the presence of 7"1 reinforcement Solomon Alabi. Hopefully, the two can work out a pick and roll option once the PBA Commissioner's Cup Elimination phase gets deeper.

Hopefully, Mercado continues to embrace this newfound role as "team leader" since his only competition for the spot are young guns RR Garcia and Carlo Lastimosa both of whom are more comfortable passing the basketball, and the undersized "shoot first, second and last" veteran Chico Lanete (Coach Koy has opted to start Lanete at the 1 and Mercado at the 2 for a while now, which is something we like). As the conference goes on, we hope Mercado starts demanding for the basketball a lot more (12.7 attempts is not enough for a "star" player) and also that he starts to address that awful 3-point shooting clip of his (maybe he should leave the outside sniping to the other guys and just go back to his Sol Train- Derrick Rose power kamikaze drive schtick).

Who knows, if Mercado keeps going the way he is right now, he just might find himself back in the loving arms of one of the three main "Team SMCs."

On a side note, the man does resemble a fat, Hispanic Derek Ramsey yes? Yes.