What’s on your mind, Bo?

De La Salle charging back from a 14-point halftime deficit and Bo Perasol leaves the Eagles wingless by electing to bench Chris Newsome, who got undercut by Thomas Torres, and Ryan Buenafe who was the lone muscle (I know it’s fat!) for the Blue and White.

The rest is history.

De La Salle managed to one-up the Blue Eagles, the team I shout and roar myself hoarse for, 82-73. This breaks the Archers’ six-game losing streak to their archrivals. More awful than that, this breaks the hearts of a lot of Blue and White faithful after watching the Eagles play their best half of basketball without superstar Kiefer Ravena. What’s even more worse, we’re now down 0-3 folks.

The way it’s panning out, I’m staring at a 3-4 first round at the least and a 1-6 at the worst. What else is left? Oh, Jericho Cruz, Ingrid Sewa and Adamson. Karim Abdul and UST. Roi Sumang, Charles Mammie and UE. What’s the big deal? They’re big, literally. We have the thinnest frontcourt rotation and they cannot be counted upon on offense unlike the three-peat year where Justin Chua showed us why he was heavily recruited out of Chang Kai Shek.

Pardon me as I show my bias once and for all regarding the Hail Mary Squad. I bleed Blue. You can go on another page if you bore of it. However, I’m appealing to the basketball fan in you, your knowledge of X’s and O’s and backscreens, v-cuts, pick and roll, and all that technical hoopla.

Why is that? My 0-3 Eagles surely have heaps of X’s and O’s to nitpick about and I will try to play head coach at least this time around.

I’ll direct this to Coach Bo. What’s on your mind coach? I mean, seriously. We’re all making do with what we have. You have the thinnest and arguably weakest frontcourt in terms of productivity. Kiefer’s been out because of God-knows-what happened with that sprain. You have to convert Ryan “Air Liempo” Buenafe and Chris Newsome to play 4 for long stretches. Juami has been funky for the last three games because Kiefer’s absence is taking away his clean looks. That alone is tough in itself.

Then, I must reiterate, you have Frank Golla, G-Boy Babilonia and Vince Tolentino to rely on as Poy Erram rounds into gameshape following an ACL injury. Frank Golla, G-Boy Babilonia and Vince Tolentino. Repeat that. Repeat ad infinitum. You have to rely heavily on these guys to hold the fort as Air Liempo, The Phenom, Magic and Newnew handle the task of putting points across the board. If you’ve been dealt a worse hand, I don’t know how they can compare.

Frank should be tasked to do one thing alone: REBOUND. Tolentino’s game is still being an energy guy but has potential written across him given the right development trajectory. But there’s still the chance he can end up like Frank Golla. G-Boy? Wasn’t he taught the Norman Black style of defense? The honest, no over-reaction, or overplaying kind of defense? The kid’s screen and roll D was turrible. There’s no point in closing out the point guard when Nico Elorde has caught up from the initial pick and the ball is picked up on the show. Help is not that quick so stay home on your man, son.

Then there’s Gwyne. Capacio has loads of potential to be a great wing. A match-up nightmare in that he can take it from 20 feet in and rough it up in the paint. Maybe it’s the nerves. He’s being the Doug Kramer on this team. The Butterfingers version of Doug Kramer that is. So much can be done with him. He has to start calming down and let the game come to him. He’s no slouch anyway.

I still believe in you, Coach Bo. But that awkward sub pattern has to change. Waaaaaaay too much gambling on the bigs. The two-foul rule is not imposed. That’s why we run short of them in crucial stretches. And don’t get me started on halftime adjustments. They’re turrible. Wait, they aren’t even present. See, the guy you came in for is a halftime wizard. Whether the Blue Eagles are up or down, there’s always an adjustment. If they’re up, they hit the nail with the hammer more furiously. If they’re down, they go on a blazing run and never look back.

It’s not that I’ve been pampered too much by Norman Black and his magic. I’ve suffered through the drought before hitting paydirt on Chris Tiu’s final year. Yes, it’s tough to do it without the superstar. But hey, Ryan Buenafe wasn’t hotly recruited for nothing. He has a claim on the kingship as much as Ravena does.

I don’t want you out. You haven’t shown me what you can do with Kiefer in harness. I keep saying, just they wait. Just they wait.

Then we’ll probably see the genius in your style after all.

P.S. please stay away from the D’Antoni system.

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