FilOil Spotlight: Von Pessumal

Earning Your Keep

Not much is expected out of a freshman unless he is a five-star recruit and needs to contribute in a big manner right away. However, they may sometimes hit that rookie wall or get in a funk so bad that they cannot recover from it, just ask former UP Maroon, Migs de Asis.

Come the sophomore season, if the freshie ain’t a one-and-done kind of fellow, there’s gradual increase of playing time to strut his wares or no playing time at all. He gets buried behind someone who has managed to up his game or the team decided to look for someone else at his position and could not wait for him to develop. Suddenly, he gets demoted to the B team and soon loses it, or he tries to get his A team status back like former Blue Eagle Emman Monfort.

By the third year of the player, he should have learned how to earn his keep: play airtight, lockdown defense and knocking down that open jumper that his star teammates give him due to his man doubling option number one. But it is rare, so rare, to see a player who was barely used in his first two years, even in preseason action, catapult to consistent scoring option off the pine.

Glad to see you are back Von Pessumal. Glad to see you’re back.

This gangly, former RP Youth Team member was subsequently forgotten by the college hoops community after he commited – a no-brainer decision actually – to play for the Ateneo Blue Eagles after he is done playing for their juniors team, the multi-titled Ateneo Blue Eaglets of coach Jamike Jarin. Who was he with? Oh, some dude named Kiefer Ravena. He should’ve gone to the Team Glory Be right? Well, he did not.

He stuck around the A team for two years, bided his time and in this year’s FilOil Flying V Premier Cup, Von Pessumal has announced his release from Coach Norman Black’s doghouse. Now, before you get any negative thoughts regarding that, Black might have been holding out Pessumal since he was reed-thin and could be easily pushed around by the other, more veteran (read: magulang) guards out there. Whatever work Von has put in during those years, it’s paying off. That stroke is deadlier and more, in street parlance, sureball. He’s not back-rimming or bricking his jumpshots anymore. He’s a viable three point threat out there to ease the pressure of Kiefer Ravena’s shoulders. Now, he’s out there to contend for Sixth Man of the Year at this rate.

And one more thing, it’s really fun to see the troika of Ravena, Pessumal and Magic Tiogson balling out there and winning basketball games, whether it be close or by blowouts, just like their days as Blue Eaglets.

Welcome back Von Pessumal.