Bleacher Talk

Bleacher Talk March 30, 2008 American Idol & Manny Pacquiao Going over the numerous post-fight commentaries about Manny Pacquiao’s fight against Juan Manuel Marquez and catching American Idol on TV have become a perfect combination that this corner couldn’t help but fuse in together for fun and to provide a little spice to Pacquiao’s latest conquest. Don’t worry. I’m not talking about Pacquiao’s chances of repeating a William Hung on American Idol. But just for once, wouldn’t it be interesting if we asked American Idol’s judges to make an assessment on Pacman’s latest fight? With the show’s permission, I’d like to borrow their judges only for today. We see a lot of Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell these days, and since the Pacman loves to sing, let’s go ahead and ask them for their thoughts. If Pacquiao’s latest fight were part of the show, Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell would both be critical of his latest performance, but won’t necessarily be calling him a total failur

Bleacher Talk March 23, 2008 Summer Programs Re-visited The heat is on and one thing is certain. It’s summer! And as in many previous summers, parents are going over several options of summer programs or classes where they plan to enroll their kids. These programs range from the academic type of classes all the way to music and of course, sports. The primary reason why parents enroll their kids in sports programs is to fill up their summer with productive and meaningful activities. By signing up, they hope to hit two birds with one stone. Their kids manage to spend their summer vacation wisely, and they also pick up something new to learn or manage to improve their craft or skill at a specific sport. For some, the summer is an opportunity to learn a sport that they’ve always wanted to pick up, but they’ve never had the opportunity to do so. For others, it simply becomes a continuation of practicing a sport that they’ve already picked up at school. But there’s a warning that must also b

Davies Cup Results From March 15-16 Four Teams Go 2-0 in Davies Cup Power Floor/UAP Cebu-Sugbu, Liquid Tile/UAP Lapulapu, Polyflor and Roof Shield registered their second straight wins over the weekend at the Metro Sports Center to pace their respective groups of the Davies Cup 2008 basketball tournament. In Group A action, Liquid Tile/UAP Lapulapu overcame an upset-conscious Sun and Rain/UAP Rajah Humabon, 80-74. Meanwhile Polyflor kept abreast with Liquid tile by beating the debuting Mortaflex squad, 79-61. Liquid Tile blew hot and cold throughout the game, trailing in the first period before rallying and grabbing control of the game in the third period. Coming off a 54-52 lead at the start of the fourth quarter, Liquid Tile raced to as much as a 10-point lead before Sun and Rain staged a rally that cut the lead down to two points on two occasions, the last at 71-73, thanks to a five-point swing of team captain Rolan Alberto. Roy Ramodez, however took over for Liquid Tile in the end-

Bleacher Talk March 16, 2008 Pacquiao by TKO Around 1pm today, the entire country will be celebrating local boxing’s biggest victory of the year when Manny Pacquiao wins by knock-out over Juan Manuel Marquez. I just can’t see how the Pacman can lose in their rematch. With an almost perfect training camp sans all the distractions that bog him down, Pacquiao is going to be unbeatable. We can expect Pacquiao to be his usual self, but this time with a more tactical approach towards the excellent counter-punching style of Marquez. We’ll see the Pacman take control of the fight by initiating the exchanges and being more than willing to get hit just to turn the fight into a slugfest. The key to a Pacquiao victory his how he’ll apply Freddie Roach’s strategy to reply to Marquez counter punching. The big difference in the first match was that Pacquiao was not able to consistently find an answer to Marquez’s brilliant counter-punching. I know that I’ve mentioned the term counter-punching so may

Davies Cup Results March 9 Games Power Floor/UAP Cebu-Sugbu d. Da Vinci/PICE B, 91-41 Roof Shield d. Classitex, 54-53 Roof Shield, Power Floor Win in Davies Cup Roof Shield and Power Floor/UAP Cebu-Sugbu registered contrasting wins Sunday as they opened up their respective bids in the Davies Cup 2008 basketball tournament at the Metro Sports Center Sunday. Roof Shield blew hot and cold, and had to wait for a missed free throw with no time left on the clock to score a nerve-wracking 54-53 win over Classitex. On the other hand, Power Floor didn’t have much to worry about as they crushed Da Vinci, 91-41 to score the most lopsided win among the debuting teams in the tournament. Roof Shield was on its way to a win as it used a big fourth quarter run and take as much as a seven point lead midway through the payoff period. But Classitex never gave up, chipping away at the lead slowly but surely until tying the score at 52-all with 1:30 left in the game. Jonas Gesulga replied with two free thr

Davies Cup Results March 8 Games Liquid Tile/UAP Lapulapu, Polyflor Win in Davies Cup Opener Liquid Tile/UAP Lapulapu trounced Megacryl/PICE-A, 68-54, to serve notice of its billing as pre-tournament favorites on opening weekend of the Davies Cup 2008 basketball tournament at the Metro Sports Center. With both sides dealing with inconsistent play due to opening day jitters, Liquid Tile managed to play just a tad better in the first quarter, taking a 17-8 lead. The second quarter though, was an all Liquid Tile show as Jonathan Suico scored nine of his 11 points to up Liquid Tile’s lead to 13 points, 37-24 at halftime. It was smooth-sailing from there on as Megacryl couldn’t find the answers to Liquid Tile’s inside game and its deep bench with Coach Mark Tallo using evey player on the roster. John Sulay scattered 13 points to lead the charges of Liquid Tile team manager Alan Coachuy. He was backed up by Suico and Jay Ramodes who had 11 points apiece. Raymond Mateo, Jeamar Sanchez and Mar

Bleacher Talk March 9, 2008 Ordinary Boxing Ordinary Boxing. Yes, it’s just an ordinary headline, but I hope it doesn’t send the wrong signal to boxing fans. But this is the latest trend in boxing that we’ll all have to accept. Let’s explain. I use the term ordinary when describing local boxing events but can also replace this with such words as “regular”, “the usual” or “nothing special.” And I don’t mean this in a negative manner. In fact, this is the result of Cebu Boxing elevating or upgrading itself to a higher level. The norm for Cebu Boxing these days is seeing the likes of Gerry Peñalosa, Z Gorres, Randy Suico, Boom Boom Bautista, AJ Banal and Cebu’s other top boxers seeing action in the United States against foreign opponents. They will most likely no longer face a Pinoy on top of the ring for the rest of their careers. Let’s just say that it’s like they’ve “graduated” from the local boxing scene of tune-up fights and mismatches against countrymen. They’ll still have fights in

USC Baby Warriors sweep 2 CYBL crowns (Note: This is taken from the news story written by Marian Baring of Sun Star Cebu http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/ceb/2008/03/06/sports/usc.baby.warriors.sweep.2.cybl.crowns.html ). THE University of San Carlos Baby Warriors pulled off a twinkill in the Cebu Youth Basketball League Hapee Cup after winning the mini and midget division titles yesterday at the City Sports Club Cebu basketball court. USC North repeated their elimination round exploit over Sacred Heart School Jesuit with a 46-41 come-from-behind win to claim the mini division crown. USC North had to pass through the eye of the needle before taking the win. The Baby Warriors were running out of time as they were behind by as much as 17 points in the final quarter. But instead of just accepting defeat, USC NC, with the leadership of John Pajantoy, fired up and went on a searing 21-2 run to steal the title. Pajantoy scored 18 points in the rally to help the team win the crown, earning

1st Davies Cup caging opens Saturday (by Manny Villaruel, The Freeman, March 6, 2008, http://www.philstar.com/index.php?Sports&p=52&type=2&sec=73&aid=2008030566 ) All roads lead to the Metrosports basketball gym at 3 pm this Saturday for the kick-off salvo of the 1st Davies Cup basketball tournament. A joint project of Davies Paints and the United Architects of the Philippines (UAP), the first professional hoop invitational in Cebu features licensed architects against civil engineers and contractors in a friendly but highly competitive hardcourt war. A total of 10 teams divided into two brackets will see action in the two-month tilt aimed at fostering fellowship and camaraderie among those in the industry: architects, civil engineers, and contractors. Making up Group A are Liquid Tile-UAP Lapu-Lapu Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers (PICE) Team A of Jeamar Sanchez, Sun and Rain-UAP Rajah Humabon Contractors A of Teddy Perges (Jet Engineering) and Contractors C. Gro

ALL USC SHOW IN CYBL It was an all USC show at the Cebu Youth Basketball League (CYBL) Championship Sunday as the sister schools from the North and South Campuses scored contrasting wins to bag the Mini and Midget division championships of the CYBL-Hapee Cup. USC South controlled most of the game, succumbed to a spirited rally, only to recover just in time defeat the University of Cebu, 77-72 in overtime to win the Midget division championship. In the Mini division, USC North scored a dramatic come-from-behind win over the Sacred Heart School Jesuit, 46-41 to complete a perfect run to the championship. USC South went to their full-court trap from the onset to control the first half of the game, controlling the first quarter 24-13, and enjoying a 35-23 lead at the half. Joven Sepe and Dominic Nazareno took over in the first quarter while Jake Gabuya took care of the second period. UC, however, bounced back with a strong third quarter behind Roger Pogoy’s eight points, closing the gap to

Bleacher Talk March 1, 2008 Practice and No Play? Each time the month of March rolls around, we always have two questions to ask from the sports family, more particularly those that are from school-based programs. The first question we ask ourselves is how the school-year went in terms of sports development. The other question is what sports activities will our sportsmen and leaders have this summer? I guess you can say it’s better late then never, but if a sport is to be gauged in terms over-all development, one of the best ways is to see how busy the sport was over the past ten months. But we’re not talking about the act of practicing as a team in school or playing in school intrams. We all know how there’s no real substitute to the real thing: a tournament game played against a team from another school. Exposure to competition in a tournament-setting is a pre-requisite for sports development as this is where our young potentials mature and develop as players and as people. So how di