Epic battles seen today

The cutthroat competition in the Gran Matador PBA Fiesta Cup post-classification plays could only get tougher with the start of the quarterfinals tonight at the Araneta Coliseum.

Red Bull Barako, Alaska Milk, Shell and Purefoods, teams which have not won a title for quite sometime now, are expected to gut it out to gain the crucial headstart in two short best-of-three showdowns which will decide the teams joining top seeds Talk n Text and San Miguel in the Final Four.

It’s Red Bull versus Alaska on one side and Shell against Purefoods on the other with both promising to become epic battles.

The Red Bull-Alaska tiff, for one, offers an exciting duel between two explosive imports in the youthful Earl Barron and former Chicago Bulls stalwart Dickey Simpkins.

The Aces swept the Barakos in two meetings in the classification round but Red Bull was still without the versatile Barron then. The Barakos have won five of their six games with Barron – a former NIT most valuable player awardee.

Alaska coach Tim Cone admitted Barron is a force to reckon with. "Barron is a talented player," Cone said.

Barron is second in the league in scoring with an average of 27.2 points a game. He also normed 15.3 rebounds as Red Bull made a big surge, including a two-game sweep of defending champion Barangay Ginebra in the wildcard plays.

"Dickey Simpkins is an experienced player but youth is on Earl’s side. I feel good on Earl’s matchup with Simpkins," said Red Bull coach Yeng Guiao.

No doubt, the Aces also have a big-time player in Simpkins, whose unselfish plays and familiarity with Cone’s trademark triangle offense enabled the team to rise from the cellar early on and into the No. 3 spot at the end of the qualifying round.

Simpkins, who played alongside the great Michael Jordan in Chicago’s second NBA three-peat, averaged 23.6 points and 18.2 rebounds in 16 games with Alaska although he’s been playing hurt of late due to back spasms – a factor which limited him offensively in the Aces’ 86-66 ouster of the Coca-Cola Tigers.

Alaska and Red Bull figured in a playoff the last time in the 2002 All-Filipino Cup semifinals with the Aces winning their best-of-three series despite losing the opening game.

The other quarterfinals matchup, meanwhile, offers Purefoods’ explosive new import Marcus Melvin and the gung-ho game of the entire Shell team.

Melvin, joining the Hotdogs just before the wildcard plays, has emerged the league’s scoring leader with 33.3 points a game. He also averages 17.3 points, 3.0 assists and 1.3 blocks. — Nelson Beltran