Two-time MVP Willie Miller found his fiery form of old and in the process helped Alaska regain its footing with back-to-back wins over higher-placed teams in the Smart PBA Fiesta Conference.
Miller averaged 29 points, 5.5 rebounds and four assists in the Aces’ 99-91 and 101-90 wins over Coca-Cola and Red Bull, respectively, earning for him the Smart Accel-PBA Press Corps’ Player of the Week in the period May 12-18.
All because, Alaska coach Tim Cone said, Miller started asserting himself.
“When the new guys, LA (Tenorio) and Larry (Fonacier) and (import) Randy (Holcomb) came he backed off a little bit. He wanted to get those guys involved. He didn’t want to be the big man on the campus. He wanted to step away, as if saying, ‘Welcome to the team,’” Cone said.
“He has since realized how important he is to the team. We were bugging and bugging him how he needs to be aggressive and be aggressive. And finally before the Coke game he came up and he said he was going to be aggressive. It kind a scared us a little bit.”
It readily showed.
Against Coke, Miller had 13 of his game high 34 points in the fourth quarter, six of them in an 11-3 run after the Tigers took a 95-86 lead with 3:56 left.
The 34 is a personal conference high for last season’s MVP and is the second most by a local this conference, next only to Mac Cardona’s 35 in Talk N Text’s 115-113 win over Sta. Lucia on April 18.
“After the Coke game he’s come back to the realization that for the new guys to be successful, he needs to be aggressive, to be the big man on campus. Without that, we cannot be successful because we rely on him a lot.”
Miller had a more modest 24 points in the Aces’ win over Red Bull, but he showed his all-around efficiency by spiking those up with seven rebounds and six assists and going 8-of-17 from the field, including 4-of-8 from beyond the arc.
Those triumphs over the erstwhile co-leading Coke and previously solo leading Red Bull snapped a four-game slide by Alaska and improved the team’s win-loss record to 4-6.
Now, Cone can’t help but be pleased with the plays and attitude to be the lead of the man who first won the league’s highest individual honor in 2002 and again last season.