Sports Weekly Magazine
October 29-November 5, 1976
Bitoy Bonifacio
“Our chances are great, the way the boys have been playing, “Toyota coach Dante Silverio said.
“It will be tough, but we will try our best. I have a feeling we will make it,” offered U/Tex coach Narciso Bernardo.
Ning Ramos of the late-coming Royals is just too happy they made it to the semis; and sees a certain hope of making it, because his men are known hardworkers.
“Dadaan sa butas ng karayom. It will definitely be a tough series,” cautioned Crispa’s Baby Dalupan.
Crispa, Toyota, U/Tex, Royal.
All four are liable to fall.
Uncertainty, the intriguing ingredient of fine sports contests, will be the theme of the just-opened PBA semis, and no one could be gladder than the fat man before the PBA cash registers.
“Lahat, pwedeng masilat,” boomed heavyweight referee Igmidio Cahanding. “All games will be well-attended.”
To make it to the finals, all four teams in the elite cast will have to give all they got, and even as self-styled experts feel that all the latest developments in the PBA front can’t prevent another Toyota-Crispa title clash, the men behind the contending teams are being doubly wary of the odds.
Crispa, indeed, has the deepest bench, but it is still a big uncertainty how coach Dalupan’s crew would respond all throughout. Crispa plays worst when favored, but underdogs, it pours out all it got.
“It can’t be always like this every night,” Dalupan assessed his team’s latest swamping of the Comets. “It so happened they (the Comets) played poorly tonight. But I told the boys to forget it and start thinking about the semifinals. Every game in the semifinals will count.”
Dalupan was being properly cautious. It’s rare that you find the Comets playing like third-rates. In the no-bearing Toyota-Crispa game, which concluded the qualifying phase of the PBA Open, Silverio’s boys placed suspiciously too tame and bowed to the undermanned Denims who, because of reported team troubles and the sidelining of the injured Bogs Adornado, were tabbed as plus-five pre-game favorites.
It was yet the most disappointing point in the storied Crispa-Toyota rivalry. But despite Toyota’s deplorable performance, before another full-house crowd at Araneta, coach Silverio doesn’t foresee any trouble on the road to the finals.
“They (Crispa) played excellently,” Silverio said. “But my boys were a little off tonight. I, however, expect them to be back to their old reliable form in the semis.”
Silverio was not alone in his observation. Upcoming coach Narciso Bernardo of the U/Tex Wranglers ascribed Toyota’s humiliating setback against Crispa to the Comets’ below-par performance.
“The last time Toyota beat us, they played perfect,” Bernardo explained. “But you see, they suddenly could not get going tonight. Something was wrong with them.”
The inconsistency in both Crispa and Toyota’s games is what Bernardo hopes to exploit to strengthen his bid for a finals’ slot. Of course, Bernardo and the U/Tex management is happy enough that they made it to the semis, despite the troubles and the last-minute revision in their lineup.
“I think we have the material to make it,” Bernardo said. “The boys always play hard. They (Toyota and Crispa) can’t be at their best every night. Malas lamang nila ‘pag natiyempuhan naming sila.”
U/Tex, the surprise package of the league, had proven its worthiness in the qualifying series, having two-straighted Crispa and prevailed over Toytoa once. It is a wise Bernardo who, however, knows that it will be a totally different story in the semis. And to live up to the challenge, he has sort of devised new strategies.
“We will be using them when the situation calls for it,” Bernardo promised.
Use his new strategies, if they are really that worthy, Bernardo will have to. There are those who feel, particularly after their humiliating loss against Toyota, that the Wranglers have fumbled in their training program. It has been suspected that they have arrived at their peak form too soon.
But Bernardo disagrees. His boys, he said, have been training to go not only fifteen rounds but as much as thirty.
Staying power, however, will not be the deciding factor in the four-way race to the finals. Bernardo’s problems will be manifold.
How to contain Crispa’s point-producing machine when it’s hot is indeed a terrible test. Then, add to this problem the problem of Mann, the re-emerging Crispa team pillar who has suddenly started playing with vengeance after he decided to stay put and work with his Filipino teammates.
How to go through the famous Toyota blockade, particularly in crucial stages, is another puzzle Bernardo has to solve. Known physical players, the Comets are tested besiegers who had proven capable of reducing Crispa, the top offensive outfit in the land, to its ordinary level.
Then, the Royals. Now that they have made it. There’s no going back for Ning Ramos’ charges who are also capable of sneaking in with a streak of murderous baskets at the slightest fault of their foes.
All they had initially aimed for was the semis, but now that they are here, coach Bernardo and the emerging Wranglers will be greatly disappointed if they fail to make a mark, proceed to the Finals.
Basketball devotees, from the barefoot newsboy to the pot-bellied Makati executive, believe it will be extremely hard for other contenders to prevent another Crispa-Toyota finals showdown.
Another Crispa-Toyota ending to the PBA Open Conference?
Only U/Tex has credentials to provide a new twist in the fast-tiring Crispa-Toyota story.