Duremdes' status as coach known in next few games

Whether Kenneth Duremdes will call the shots for the Coca-Cola Tigers on a permanent basis will be known by February.

The STAR gathered this from Coca-Cola top official JB Baylon who said Duremdes’ performance as interim coach will be assessed by the team management in the next few days.

Duremdes’ playing contract with the Tigers expires on New Year’s Eve. The one-time MVP awardee was tapped to coach the Tigers on an interim capacity after coach Binky Favis was sacked after winning only one game in their first four outings in the KFC PBA Philippine Cup.

“We’ll assess the performance of the coaching staff. We’ll not be in a rush,” said Baylon, whose team has fallen by the wayside in the ongoing all-Filipino tourney, beaten by San Miguel Beer in the first stage of the wildcard round.

Others who will be under evaluation are interim assistant coaches Gerard Francisco, William Antonio and George Ella.

Although Duremdes insists he still wants to play, Baylon believes the 1998 MVP awardee will be prevailed to stay on coaching the team if asked to.

Baylon, at the same time, denied he’s offered the position to other coaches.

The Coca-Cola top executive also said they had thought of bringing back Rashad Bell as their import in the Fiesta Conference but the Boston U product is currently tied up in the Hungarian league.

Meanwhile, Rain or Shine backcourt partners Gabe Norwood and Sol Mercado led the stats race for the Rookie of the Year derby after the elimination round.

Norwood, the season’s top draft pick, averaged 27.4 stats points per game while Mercado normed 24.2 per outing.

Talk n Text’s Jarred Dillinger (23.7) was third followed by San Miguel’s Bonbon Custodio (23.6), TnT’s Jason Castro (23.5), Red Bull’s Larry Rodriguez (19.5), another Red Bull player Jeff Chan (17.5), Rain or Shine’s TY Tang (16.6), Purefoods’ Beau Belga (11.8) and Alaska’s Mark Borboran (10.9).   - Nelson Beltran