Gregorio welcomes Meralco challenge

MANILA, Philippines - Ryan Gregorio can only wish he had the powers to bring James Yap along.

The energetic head coach of Meralco, which is staging a big comeback in Philippine basketball, yesterday said there’s only one thing lacking in PBA’s newest team: a go-to-guy in the mold of the two-time MVP from Purefoods.

“What we need is a scorer, a go-to-guy in offense,” said the 37-year-old coach, who won three championships with Purefoods, which he handled starting in 2002 until he was recently lured by Meralco’s lucrative contract.

Meralco, which bought the Sta. Lucia franchise for a chance to relive its glory days in the MICAA until the early ‘70s, would have been perfectly fine if Kelly Williams and Ryan Reyes were not traded to Talk N Text months back.

But Gregorio loves the challenge, and said Meralco will be pretty strong with its backbone composed of Marlou Aquino, Chris Ross and Nelbert Omolon. He said victory won’t come overnight, but sooner or later it will happen.

“It won’t happen overnight. But the target is always to win, win consistently and then win the championship. What we like is a chance to make sure the foundation is solid,” he said during yesterday’s PSA Forum at Shakey’s UN Avenue.

“It’s important that when you mold a team you need guys to build the team around. And at this point, Marlou will still be an integral part of what we intend to do. You just can’t go into a crowd and pick a 6-foot-9 player like him,” said Gregorio.

“And I’m really impressed with Chris Ross. He can dominate a game just by playing defense in the same manner that Omolon was a defensive specialist even before he turned to his offense. These three guys will make our team,” he added.

He’s also aware that the next draft may not be as deep as the previous ones, and that by the time Meralco makes its pick, Ateneo big men Rabeh Al-Husseini and Nonoy Baclao are gone, and they may have to go for UE’s Elmer Espiritu.

“I’m looking at these guys as the top three picks. But we will be happy with Espiritu because he’s highly athletic, he can play defense, and he can jump out of the gym,” said Gregorio.

He was accompanied to the forum, also sponsored by Pagcor and Outlast Battery, by Meralco senior vice president and PBA board representative Ramon Segismundo, and senior manager Mandy Padua.

Segismundo said Meralco’s early goal is to win its first championship in three years.

“It’s hard to define the future. But at the three-year mark, to win a championship will make us very happy. It will be a milestone for us,” he said, adding that to make waves in the next two years is part of their plan.

“We intend to start winning games in the next conference,” said Segismundo.

Padua said to make the semis in the All-Filipino Conference, which starts in October, will be a realistic goal for the team, but he added that Gregorio’s give-it-your-all attitude in the game makes it possible to even go farther.

“But whatever the results are, we will be satisfied as long as the players give 110 percent,” said Padua.