Rain Or Shine Rallies For Win!

Maybe Yeng Guiao should try to get suspended for the next game too.

The Elasto Painters surprised Talk N Text's with defensive tenacity and determination to come away with a 96-81 victory.

Talk N Text shot just 30.9%, it's worst ever under Coach Chot Reyes as the Elasto Painters built a 20point lead in the second quarter and cruised till the end of the game.

Guia was suspended for one game for insinuating that Rain Or Shine was being cheated by the referees in their match against B-Meg.  

More on this story here.

A GUARDED QUESTION!

In my humble opinion, most of the members of the RP Powerade Team are the clear cut choices for their positions. 

If there is ever a question mark in the team, it has got to be Cyrus "Skyrus" Baguio, the man who takes over Dondon Hontiveros' spot as designated shooter and who takes a roster spot away from Jimmy "The Mighty Mouse" Alapag.

Based on Baguio's performance in the Jones Cup, there is absolutely no reason for him to be on the RP Team. He was unable to get his offense going and was barely a factor on defense. In fact, all Baguio contributed to the Philippine cause was a couple of highlight plays in the Iran game that barely made a dent in Iran's 20 point lead.

So why Baguio over Hontiveros (acknowledged as a better shot, a better defender and a veteran internationalist) or Alapag (also a better playmaker, better shot and another veteran internationalist)? 

Only Yeng Guiao knows. And I sure hope he, and Skyrus, prove me wrong.

OPTIMISM OR MISDIRECTION?

In today's sport pages, RP Team coach Yeng Guiao was guardedly optimistic, saying we had a fair chance of earning one of the three FIBA-World championship slots at stake. He also said that we had a good chance of going to the semifinals and a great chance of advancing to the quarterfinals.

Really? Seriously? Now, I'm all for hope and optimism and all that jazz but after the Jones Cup, I am simply not as optimistic as Yeng Guiao. 

Sure, we'll make it out of our group. But we are expected to. After all, no one expects Sri Lanka to actually beat us. But if we lose to Korea and Japan like we did in the Jones Cup, our next opponent may well be Iran, who beat us by 25 points without breaking a sweat. Then where will we be?

For us to actually have a chance of advancing to the semifinals, we need to finish first in our so-called "Group of Hope". That way, we get to face either Uzbekistan or Chinese Taipei (who also beat us by about 10 points in the Jones Cup).

If we don't do that, then we can chalk this team up as just the latest in a series of heartbreaking mishaps in the increasingly dimming Philippine basketball scene.