Hello guys. I’m back. It’s my pleasure to inform you that you will read a lot more articles about this season, as a slew of new writers have been commissioned, apparently to retire me and my pathetic writing. Please let me know if you want me out also. I’m a fair guy. Stupid, but fair. And I know when I’m not wanted. These signs point to that. Hahahaha.
Year in and year out, you can actually observe that there are writing templates, styles, if you may call them, by several of the writers who are dumb enough to write for the community’s entertainment.
I mean hey. Whenever we win, the comments are always One La Salle. Kudos coach. Galing Aljun. Hayop ang laro ni Baltazar. What’s there to write about when we win?
But when we lose, THAT’s where it gets interesting. And thus, the first template. The comments. Brutal. Toxic. Name calling. Head hunting. Bad team. No rebounding. No teamwork. No plays.This player over that. Even the rules that supposedly favored us, are questioned. The Troy Rike rule. One comment read that it was a bastardization of the rules and the league.
Let’s first take that. The Troy Rike Rule. Why was it called that? Well, it was because of TROY RIKE. Duh!!!! Who was Troy Rike? He was a Filamerican player who completed his four year college stint at Wake Forest, the same school that produced Tim Duncan.
Why the introduction of the rule then? Well, he was a potential Gilas Player, a national player in training actually. A cadet. For some of you who don’t know, he was the player who rescued an Australian player from a bad rumble beating in that infamous Australia game, which resulted to FIBA suspensions to our players and officials. Got monetarily rewarded by Australia for that, which he donated to charity. Really good kid.
Going back. In order to size up Troy, beef up his resume as a Filipino, the rule was introduced to allow him to play. But why the rule? Players from other schools have transferred before by enrolling in masteral programs, and play for a maximum of two years.
Since this is an article, I’m allowed to opine. You may disagree. They really wanted transferees to play just one more year, not two. Your guess is as good as mine as to who and why. Hahahaha.
So Rike played for…. National University. Last year. Any questions then? NONE!!!!
Now what is trending? That law favors us. And why is that? Jamie Orme Malonzo!!!! You aren’t happy with him? Even with the loss, the net is a buzz with his exploits. And that dunk. And now it’s controversial. Hahahaha.
Well that was nasty pic.twitter.com/9dwlxkoAUF
— Go Archers (@GoArchers) September 8, 2019
Ok enough of that. We now have a team. Period. A team, on its first game, lost to the defending champions with an intact line up. So?
Go back to why we lost. Stats say (fouls 22 to 13 in favor of Ateneo). Conclusion. Talo sa tawag. Specially in the second quarter. Lumayo sa free throws. We hit penalty during the 1st half of the quarter while they never did. Further conclusion. Luto. 2nd template. Denial.
Well guys, there is a second aspect to this. We had our own opportunities to score. We didn’t. Why? Gigil or eagerness to score. Who will score? Who is the go to guy? Where will we attack? Where will we see this in the stats? Turnover stats and points off turnovers. They won. And oh, there is another aspect. They play great team defense. That’s where they are really good at. And that’s why they are defending champions.
And here lies why I am still happy with this game. Our main problem is nothing more than INEXPERIENCE. Don’t over analyze with all these stats. And the reason why I am happy is that we have a game tape. A game tape that shows what they did right, what we did wrong, and more importantly, what to do next. And it only cost us ONE GAME. The first game. A game we weren’t supposed to win anyway.
Which brings us to my last template. Lessons learned.
The best lessons are taught by the best guys/teachers. And even if they are our opponents, they are the best right now. So we should learn from them. They taught us a lesson today. But didn’t we teach them a lesson with Mbala, Jeron, Thomas, Jason et. al? The dunk heard ’round the UAAP? They learned, didn’t they? So should we.
ANIMO