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...

CYBL - Hapee Cup Results from Feb. 23-24 UC, USC North Score Sweeps in CYBL The University of Cebu (UC) and University of San Carlos North Campus ( USC NC ) scored close wins over upset-conscious foes to sweep their respective divisions at the Cebu Youth Basketball League (CYBL) – Hapee Cup over the weekend. UC scored a close 79-75 win over USC South Campus ( USC SC ) in double overtime to take solo leadership of the Midget division. USC SC was on its way to scoring a big upset over the pre-tournament favorites as they led UC throughout the game. And with the game tied at 59-all and six seconds left, USC SC broke down the full-court trap of UC perfectly, but Daryl Nazareno missed from point blank as time expired. The first overtime was a repeat of the last five minutes of regulation as both teams traded baskets and lead changes. With UC down 67-68, UC’s Gerald Ampoon had a chance to lead UC to a win, but could only split his charities to tie the game anew and send it into a second over...

Bleacher Talk Feb. 24, 2008 Good News, Bad News First the good news. Cebu is hosting a national-level basketball tournament called the National Students Basketball Championship (NSBC). This starts tomorrow and will last until early next week. For such a feat, the local basketball family must be jumping for joy and proudly telling the whole country about it. After all, this is a national thing, isn’t it? But why aren’t we doing just that? Why aren’t Cebu’s basketball leaders trumpeting the event in the same way that the local Cebu horse owners group proudly hosted the Governor’s Cup last week? Even the drag racing competition at the SRP seems to be a louder event, and it’s technically only for the rich and their fancy cars. I’m afraid this is where the bad news comes in. The NSBC is not as “national” as it really is. While the ‘NSBC” as a tournament title indicates that it’s a national collegiate tournament, it just isn’t. The only thing national about this is that the country’s differe...

Bleacher Talk Feb. 17, 2008 A Hapee CYBL For today, I’m going to bend over a bit from Bleacher Talk’s “policies” when I talk about the Cebu Youth Basketball League (CYBL). I normally don’t openly discuss projects which Bleacher Talk directly manages, but this will have to be an exception to the rule and I think you’ll see why. For some time now, we have always talked about the need to develop basketball among the youth. We’re loaded with a lot of basketball activities at the collegiate and commercial levels, but the youth scene has been very quiet. But when you sum it all up, it doesn’t make sense. We’re top heavy with activities, but the base or foundation isn’t aligned with the top. To cut a long story short, we just went out and did it. And so the CYBL was born. It sets itself to be a venue for developmental activities for basketball teams in the Under-15 and Under-12 age groups. The basketball scene for boys under 15 years old is relatively quiet, and it has become our dream to kee...

Bleacher Talk Feb. 3, 2008 Now or Never It couldn’t have been more appropriate. “Now or never” indeed is the situation in which so many boxers find themselves these days, and we’re not talking about only Z Gorres who is hours away from facing Vic Darchinyan as I write this piece. When you say now or never in boxing, we’re talking about all our favorite boxers who find themselves neither here nor there. They’ve reached so far yet they always fall short of that elusive dream of a world championship. And thus, their real chances of winning a world championship skews towards the “never” side of life. At Friday’s weigh-in for ‘Now or Never,” I bumped into former world flyweight champ Malcolm Tuñacao, a classic case of the now or never syndrome who refuses to say “never.” When I asked about his plans for the future, he said he will still go on fighting and would go back to the gym starting tomorrow. If he shows up at the ALA Gym like he said, then I hope that’s a good sign of better things t...

Sacred Heart Wins RIFA Cup The Sacred Heart School Jesuit (SHSJ) Boys 97 football team defeated Colegio de San Agustin (CSA), 3-1, in a penalty shoot-out to win the Rizal Football Association’s RIFA Cup 2008 at the CSA football field in Makati over the weekend. The game ended in a 1-all tie at the end of regulation period, and SHSJ needed to rely on their penalty kicks for the second straight year to defend their crown. CSA scored first in the first half of regulation, but the Eagles retaliated through JM Acebedo-Kwan’s penalty kick after Kiko Villamor was fouled by a CSA defender in the penalty area late in the game. Acebedo-Kwan’s goal not only found the back of the net, but more importantly lifted the spirits of the Eagles, enabling them to gain back the momentum they had lost after finding themselves down 0-1, going into the end-game. Acebedo-Kwan, Jerby Bernaldez and tournament MVP Villamor made sure that there wouldn’t be any doubt to the outcome as they nailed their respective k...

Bleacher Talk January 27, 2008 NBTC Call it good timing or providential, but the launch of the National Basketball Training Center (NBTC) took place two days after the feast of the Sto. Niño. And the common denominator here is celebrating and recognizing the value of the youth. No less than BAP-SBP Executive Director Pato Gregorio welcomed and introduced 38 teen-agers who will compose the NBTC’s first batch of trainees under the eyes of the program’s national head Eric Altamirano and Cebu’s head trainer Ramon Fernandez. The importance of starting our national team program from the grassroots and the youth has always been neglected in the past, but with its launch, the NBTC might just be what the country needs to produce competitive national teams in the future. The NBTC is composed of two sets of players according to their ages. The younger set is for those 14-15 years old while the other is made up of 16-17 year old boys. All of them will train together under a 60-hour program that wi...

Bleacher Talk January 20, 2008 Organized Mess It’s organized. It’s a mess. It’s confusing. It’s boggling. But you know what? It will be all good for basketball. What a way to start the basketball year. A year after the unity congress for basketball was organized and the two sides of this family problem were supposed to have kissed and made up, here we are back to square one. Or so it might seem. Right here in Cebu’s collegiate scene alone, we have four tournaments out to collar Cebu’s best collegiate teams. Off and running are the CESAFI Partners Cup and the Visayas Amateur Athletic Association (VAAA). On deck is the upcoming Hotel Fortuna Cup tentatively set to start on Tuesday and the BAP’s National Students Basketball Championship (NSBC) from February 26-March 2, another two leagues for collegiate basketball. And if that weren’t enough, we also have the regional and national legs of the PRISAA tournament. So when is enough really enough? We have three major entities featuring colleg...

Bleacher Talk January 13, 2008 Cebu Boxing in 2008 This early, it’s already obvious that 2008 is going to be great for Cebu Boxing. If there were to be a theme for the year, then it would be something along the lines of Cebu stamping itself as the country’s true hotbed of boxing and serving as the country’s top boxing “exporter” to the world. Cebu Boxing is no longer a local brand. It’s global. Cebu Boxing is starting out the year with two Cebu-bred world champions in WBO bantamweight champ Gerry Peñalosa and WBO miniflyweight champ Donnie Nietes. Although many expected another set of names to become world champs in 2007, the two proved that they too, deserve our attention. They may not be as popular as the likes of Manny Pacquiao, Boom Boom Bautista and AJ Banal, but what counts most is that they have the belts that the others don’t. Both Gerry and Donnie should weather through all the storms in 2008 and finish the year unscathed. Gerry will defeat Ratanachai Sor Vorapin in his first ...

Bleacher Talk January 6, 2008 Basketball in 2008 What do we expect to see in Cebu Basketball in 2008? It looks like the year will be the same as 2007. Don’t expect major changes or surprising things to happen. I’m not sure if this is good or bad for local basketball, but what bothers me is that we seem to be getting stagnant in terms of development. If there’s something we would like to see in 2008, it’s the “upgrading” of Cebu Basketball to a higher level amidst the total Philippine outlook. It’s crystal ball time so let’s see what will happen this year. For starters, our basketball leaders will remain to be the same. The Michel Lhuillier – Yayoy Alcoseba team will still remain to be the region’s leaders at the BAP-SBP, while Lorenzo “Chao” Sy will hold on to his post as the BAP-SBP’s Director for Cebu. The CESAFI will still have Engr. Rolly Villa as President, but the big question is if Commissioner Felix “Boy” Tiukinhoy will push through with his resignation when the CESAFI 07-08 se...