Impressive Beermen

By Reuel Vidal
Manila Standard
September 17, 2007

THE pre-season tournament of the Philippine Basketball Association is nearing the tail end of its elimination phase.

The pre-season tournament affords PBA teams a chance to better prepare for the coming season because pre-season games simulate actual PBA games. Players aspiring for slots in teams have more opportunities to show what they can do and PBA teams themselves have more opportunities to experiment with different combinations to see what would work best for them.

Of the PBA teams I’ve watched, I’m most impressed with the San Miguel Beermen. The team returns national team members Dondon Hontiveros and Danny Seigle and will have 6’9” rookie Samigue Eman.

But most importantly, they will be able to extract the most out of Rico Villanueva. As a late season addition, Rico looked lost in most games of the Beermen in the last conference’s playoffs. Now, with more time with his new teammates, Rico moves with more confidence and will be playing at his best come the Philippine Cup.

Eman is big, strong and mobile. He will be living a dream come true playing for San Miguel. As most every PBA follower knows, Eman is actually named Samigue because his father worked for San Miguel Beer in Davao. Hence the name Samigue after San Miguel.

Without Dorian Peña, who will be sidelined for at least two months, Eman provides additional height and heft for the Beermen. His upside is unlimited and he should be a force in the league in three to five years. In the meantime, he will be an able backup to Villanueva at the center slot.

Finally, there is rookie point guard Jonas Villanueva. At six-feet flat, Villanueva is among the bigger point guards in the league. He moves with poise and confidence for a rookie and obviously enjoys the confidence of his senior teammates.

Villanueva will have the luxury of having time to develop into a topflight point guard playing behind starter Olsen Racela and sophomore guard LA Tenorio.

It’s still the pre-season and a lot of things can happen between now and the Philippine Cup. But from where I sit, count the Beermen as among the favorites to compete for the championship.

* * *

A lot of sportswriters are not too upbeat over the choice of the Aces of Ken Bono and JR Quiñahan.

My colleagues are saying that both play essentially the same position and will take minutes from each other, thereby negating their development. They are saying that taking the two one after the other was a poor move by the Aces.

I have to disagree with this observation 100 percent. For one thing, Alaska doesn’t play the conventional game of filling all the five positions of center, power forward, small forward, big guard and point guard.

Because they run the triangle offense as far as Alaska coach Tim Cone is concerned, he just has bigs, wings and guards. For example Sonny Thoss and John Ferriols are bigs. Jeff Cariaso and Aaron Aban are wings. Mike Cortez and Rency Bajar are guards.

Bono and Quiñahan are bigs. Plus, both are so talented they can handle the ball and shoot from the outside that they can actually play the wings. I just don’t see why they can’t play together in a game.