Back to work for Alaska Aces

Alaska Aces Website
Wednesday, September 5, 2007



It is back to the salt mines for Alaska coach Tim Cone and the Alaska Aces.

The newly crowned Philippine Basketball Association Fiesta Conference champions hardly had time to bask in the luster of a newly won championship before they returned to the Adidas Sports Camp to start practices.

Cone and the Aces have plenty of reasons to look forward to the coming PBA All-Filipino Conference.

Former national player Tony Dela Cruz rejoined the Aces, Jeff Cariaso is back from a knee injury which made him miss the Finals of the Fiesta Conference plus the Aces will have three new bigs, Junjun Cabatu, Ken Bono and JR Quiñahan, to reinforce their already formidable frontline.

With Dela Cruz back in harness Cone is brimming with optimism coming into the All-Filipino conference starting Oct. 14.

“Tony’s versatility makes him so valuable,” said Cone. “He can give our team so many different looks depending on whether he plays in the backcourt or front court. We’ll have to adjust a bit from the loss of Nic (Belasco). But if we can get over that quickly, we hope to get out to a fast start like we did in the last conference.”

Cone also expressed his wish to keep the team intact.

“We really want to minimize the teaching of the basic triangle and start the conference at a higher level than normal,” said Cone. “Getting a bunch of new guys would force us to go back to square one, which we don’t want to do.”

Alaska free agents hoping to be signed to new contracts include reigning Most Valuable Player Willie Miller, Rency Bajar, Dale Singson, Cariaso, Poch Juinio, Chris Luanzon, Cabatu and Dela Cruz.

Others present during the practice were Aaron Aban, Reynel Hugnatan, John Ferriols, Sonny Thoss, Mike Cortez, Eddie Laure, and Bono.

“Sayang, JR (Quiñahan) is not here,” said Cone. “I would have loved to see him today. But he’s still in Cebu. It seems he misunderstood the schedules. But he’ll be here tomorrow (Thursday).”

Cortez was present but did not join the drills. He is resting a hyper-extended left knee which was hurt during Game 5 of the last championship. He will rehab his knee but expects to be with the Aces before the start of the All-Filipino.

Cone said the Aces will continue to rely on the triangle offense which has made Alaska among the most successful franchises in the league.

“I still love the triangle, obviously, and I still believe it is the best offense out there,” said Cone. “It promotes ball movement and unselfishness, and over time, it forces players to use all their skills and therefore helps the players improve.”

The Alaska offense has been particularly difficult to muzzle because Cone has added options to his triangle offense.

“We’ve added a bunch of stuff just to keep teams unbalanced and not allow them to totally focus on defending our triangle,” said Cone. “Hence, the high screen and rolls for Mike and Willie and low post isolations for some of our big men (Thoss, Ferriols and Hugnatan). We will continue to add new stuff as we go along and we will continue to allow our triangle to evolve as the players continue to get a better understanding of it.”