MANILA, Philippines - B-MEG Derby Ace is giving Rob Brown a chance to show his mettle at least for one game as it parades the former Buffalo Bull versus Rain or Shine Elasto in the first regular twinbill of the PBA Commissioners Cup at the Cuneta Astrodome tonight.
“This is his (Brown’s) final chance. He might show something different in an actual game,” said Derby Ace top official and league board chairman Rene Pardo.
“Shamari Spears’ papers have been processed. He made the height limit. But we opted to rest him since he’s just in his third day in the country and it’s the height of a jet lag,” Pardo also said.
Spears was measured in the PBA office yesterday morning at 6-foot-3 11/16.
Brown, a veteran of the Argentina, Israel and Iran leagues, will be pitted against Rain or Shine’s Hassan Adams, a legitimate NBA veteran with stints with the New Jersey Nets, the Toronto Raptors and the LA Clippers.
The 7:30 p.m. game marks coach Yeng Guiao’s initial appearance on the Rain or Shine bench.
“I’m very happy with our import. He looks like he knows how to win games,” said Guiao.
“I also feel good about our team. They have adapted well to the system. We are moving the ball well and our defensive intensity is high,” Guiao added.
Ronjay Buenafe and Beau Belga also make their debuts with the Rain or Shine team which is out to improve on its poor seventh-place finish in the recent Philippine Cup. Derby Ace wound up three rungs better at fourth.
Guiao is the third coach to handle the four-year-old Asian Coatings Inc. franchise after Leo Austria and Caloy Garcia. The team’s best finish in a tourney so far was fourth in the 2008-09 Fiesta Conference with Jai Lewis as import.
Alaska Milk and Powerade clash in the opening game at 5 p.m.
Coaches Tim Cone of Alaska and Bo Perasol of Powerade are both hopeful their teams can make a good run in the mid-season tourney.
“We’ve had a solid pre-conference and we’re hoping that will translate into a good start in the conference. We seem refreshed and ready to go,” said Cone.
“We have committed to treat each game as a playoff game. Our opponents will definitely feel us,” said Perasol.
The Aces are eager to plunge back into action, determined to redeem themselves from a poor sixth-place finish in the last Philippine Cup.
“We’re playing fresh-minded which is not the way we played last conference,” said Cone.
What import Larry Demetrius Williams has been showing in practice makes the Aces a lot more excited in the Commissioners Cup.
“Our import looks like a good fit,” said Cone referring to Larry Demetrius “LD” Williams from Wake Forest U.
The Tigers will bank on Russell Carter from Notre Dame. Russell hails from an athletic family with his father Russell Sr. being a former football player at Pittsburgh, cousin Sean Redman also a former football player at Penn State and uncle George Jamison an ex-football player at Cincinnati.