On History and Pressure

The jugular
(Photo credit to PBA.Inquirer.net)

Coach Alex Compton erred when he said that the pressure was not on his Alaska Aces but rather the defending champions, Coach Leo Austria and his San Miguel Beermen.

See, when news broke out that the Beermen would be going into the PBA Philippine Cup Finals minus 2x PBA MVP Junemar Fajardo, which is currently tied at three games apiece with the deciding Game 7 to be held Wednesday, no one had them winning versus the number one seeded Aces. Most experts, bloggers and amateur social media commentators were raving about the Aces’ teamwork and hustle, which could only be thwarted by the giant presence the 6”10 Cebuano. Take him out of the game and suddenly, the Beermen find themselves on even ground as the Aces man for man—only, the latter has been playing on a high level together for so long under Compton from guys 1 through 15 while the Beermen pretty much run everything, offense or defense, through their big man.

PBA Philippine Cup Finals: San Miguel vs Alaska

Pampanga's Best
(Photo courtesy of Sports5)

Welcome to the PBA Philippine Cup Best-of-Seven Finals wherein arguably the two most complete basketball teams, San Miguel and Alaska, square off to decide which proud franchise brings home the coveted Jun Bernardino Trophy.

On one side is powerhouse San Miguel Beer, now seemingly exorcised of all its demons and drama, which is looking to win its first All-Filipino championship since the glory days of the now exiled Danny Ildefonso and Danny Seigle in 2001. On the other side are the Alaska Aces, a team that has slowly rebuilt its basketball program to fit the modern era and its new core of mostly blue collar talent.

Here we try to look at the match-ups, where the strengths lie for each team and who can turn the tides when need be. Based on the names on the roster, it's easy to give San Miguel the advantage but then you realize that the Aces feature guys who are just as good yet have managed to fly under the radar owing to their #wenotme battlecry.