Bleacher Talk

Bleacher Talk November 29, 2009 Cebu in the Nationals With the various school-based leagues around the country done with their 2009 local tournaments, it’s time to determine the best team in the land. The end of the year is appropriately the right time to bring together all the best teams from the north to the south for one big finale. Not to be outdone, Cebu is once again involved in all these activities, a reflection of how competitive our basketball scene is. Over the past week, we’ve already had two major activities hugging the headlines. The national finals of the Milo-backed BEST SBP/Passerelle Twin Tournament was held in Baguio last weekend. Starting this week was the Sweet 16 round of the Philippine Collegiate Champions’ League (PCCL) in Manila. The regional eliminations prelude to the PCCL was held earlier. Also quietly taking place without making much noise is the start-up national Under 19 and Under 17 youth tournament of the Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas (SBP). Fresh fro...

Bleacher Talk November 22 2009 Pacquiao’s Legacy Even if he doesn’t fight again, Manny Pacquiao has already cemented his place in boxing history. No other boxer has won seven world championships in seven weight divisions, starting from 112 pounds all the way to 147 (145) pounds. Join us in a review of all seven so we get a bigger picture of what he has done. He earned his first word title in dramatic fashion when he defeated Thai champion Chatchai Sasakul via eighth round knock-out for the WBC flyweight championship (112 pounds) on December 8, 1998. The irony in the Pacman’s first attempt to win a world championship was that he was way behind in points in this fight before scoring the big KO. One judge even had Sasakul scoring a 7-0 shutout after seven rounds. Pacquiao would later lose his title on the weighing scale after barely making the 112-pound limit enroute to losing to another Thai Medgeon Singsurat in an equally devastating manner: third round KO. Pacquiao was visibly drained ...

Bleacher Talk November 15, 2009 Pacquiao-Cotto Pacquiao-Cotto. This is it. Will Manny Pacquiao win his seventh world championship in a seventh weight class? Or will Miguel Cotto play the spoiler’s role and break an entire nation’s heart? Brace yourselves for the fight of the year. What will we all see at today’s fight? Pacquiao go will into the fight with a tactical game plan. For starters, he won’t be mixing it up with Cotto to make the fight a slugfest. Pacquiao will use his speed to land his jab-straight combinations, and he’ll occasionally use a left hand lead from the southpaw stance to confuse Cotto in the same way he stunned the taller and bigger Oscar de la Hoya last year. He’ll then use his furious hand speed to land more blows from all angles, and then shift away from Cotto’s counters with his spins and lateral movement. The quickness of his hands will be complemented by the quickness of his feet when he spins away and avoids Cotto’s left hooks to the body. Don’t expect Pacqu...

Bleacher Talk November 8, 2009 Weekend Basketball: College & Youth What are you going to watch? College basketball, or an international 16-Under youth tournament featuring foreign teams? So what do we have? Cebu is hosting a regional eliminations leg of the Champions’ League this weekend where CESAFI’s University of Cebu (UC) and University of San Jose Recoletos (USJR) are up against two tough opponents from Manila in Adamson University (ADU) of the UAAP (fifth place) and NAASCU champion San Sebastian Recoletos-de Cavite (SSR-C). As expected, Adamson is favored to take the first slot, while the second slot is up for grabs among the three other teams. I’d like to believe that UC can handle SSR-C, with the two Recoletos teams having an outside chance of making it to the top two. The crucial task at hand for UC is to forget about its loss to UV in the finals and start all over. Why is this relevant? In last week’s column, we talked about how UV has dominated the Cebu collegiate scene ...