What they say about officiating changes

By: Zean Macamay
People's Journal
October 19, 2007

Heaven and earth. Night and day. Black and white. That seems to be the common observation by the few coaches over the officiating changes done in the PBA Philippine Cup.

And the season is not even a week old.

“It’s (officiating) entirely different,” said Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio moments after his Giants survived a rough and tough opening game against Sta. Lucia Wednesday night, 96-89.

“It’s good but the officials should be consistent,” Gregorio added. “As long as they call it fair and square, then the players should be able to adjust to the situation.”

The game between the Giants and the Realtors nearly went out of hand when nine technical fouls were called and two players – Peter June Simon and Norman Gonzales – were ejected.

Simon was thrown out after incurring two flagrant fouls, while Gonzales was ejected after successive technical fouls while guarding James Yap.

“Dati rati, sanay kami sa touch fouls,” said Gregorio. “Now, ibang-iba. Good thing we were able to adjust in the end.”

The new set of officiating rules was the first big step done under the leadership of officer-in-charge Sonny Barrios, who said that the previous ‘touch fouls’ rules have somewhat slowed down the game, much less rendered the match boring, at times.

“Nawala yung asim,” said Barrios. “Hindi naman kasi pa-pogian ito. The players might as well play chess or a board game. The purpose of this is to speed up the game. Make the players decide the game and not the officials.”

Under the new set of guidelines set by the PBA, a player is now given more freedom to defend an opposing player as long as he is not getting in the way of the offensive player.

The first game between Magnolia and Air21 after the opening ceremonies last Sunday didn’t encounter such a problem. But officials nearly failed to control the match between Purefoods and Sta. Lucia the other night.

“Nakakapanibago,” said Realtors coach Boyet Fernandez. “Napakalayo ng diperensya.

While he admitted that the game was tough, Fernandez admitted that his team was the one that surrendered in the physical aspect of the game, eventually losing what looked like an insurmountable 16-point lead (57-41).

“Kami ang bumigay sa huli,” he said.

Coach Yeng Guiao of Red Bull, for his part, has this to say.

“It’s a case of extremes,” said Guiao. “Nung last conference sanay kami sa mga ‘baklang fouls’. Ngayon iba na. And it came without any adjustment period.

“Okay lang sa amin yun, gusto nga namin walang tawagin ng fouls sa buong game. We play a physical brand of game. But for the good of the league, it should be addressed right now.”

Some, though, like it the way it is.

Adonis Tierra, one of Sta. Lucia’s assistant coaches, said: “Dito malalaman kung sino ang matigas talaga. Sagasa kung sagasa. Matira ang matibay. Dapat talaga bumalik na si Jaworski.”