Cage Comeback: Rebirth of the Redmanizers (Sports World, 1973)

Sports World

May 5, 1973

E.A. Perez de Tagle

 

 

            There is only one Shin Dong Pa and Medium Industry Bank of Korea has him. Undoubtedly the greatest shot in Asian basketball, Shin burned the hoops at Rizal Memorial Coliseum for an average of 44 points in the five games he played up to this writing. Two hundred and twenty points in all, the low at 39 against Mariwasa and the high of 51 against San Miguel Corporation.

 

            But despite Shin, the MIB five is in the lower strata of standings in the National Invitational tournament, with two wins in five outings. So that Danny Floro and Virgilio (Baby) Dalupan, the redoubtable duo that had gone through thick and thin with Crispa-Floro and lately more of the latter, feel that under the circumstances, the other teams can have their superstars, Crispa-Floro would settle for less.

 

            Not that Crispa has much less, because for a team that got bounced off three championship seats in one season (MICAA All-Filipino, National Seniors, Panamin) and on its own thumbed out superstars like Danny Florencio and Jun Papa and Rudolf Kutch besides putting in cold storage a valuable guard like Johnny Revilla (whose hot temper has exacted its toll of games), the Redmanizers (they are back to being called that after stints as Cement Mixers) have shown – with the present crew – an amazing resiliency that could well bounce them back unto a title seat before the season ends.

 

 

 

            And experts who never gave Crispa a second look are beginning to figure Crispa might just win the National Invitational.

 

            Even if the Redmanizers don’t, they’d still have accomplished enough to put them back in the list of – Danny Floro won’t like this description – super teams.

 

            When Crispa showed up for an exhibition match with a visiting Japanese team shortly after the MICAA All-Filipino which it lost to Mariwasa in two straight games, six players – Florencio, Papa, Kutch, Virgilio Abarrientos, Reynaldo Alcantara and Ernesto De Leon, were conspicuous in their absence. In their stead were four collegians, two from Ateneo and two from the University of the East.

 

            When the National Seniors came around, Dalupan’s initial comments was…”mag-qualify lang, tama na…” (Just to qualify would be enough). The only familiar names left were Fortunato Co, Rodolfo Soriano, Johnny Revilla, William Adornado and Danilo Pecache among those who saw action in the All-Filipino. Luis (Chito) Afable was another familiar name, but he was then with the now-disbanded Seven-Up team. There was talk that Edgardo Carvajal and the Cezar brothers, David and Philip of Jose Rizal College, were already with Crispa. But the three played for JRC.

 

            The most significant addition to the Redmanizers was Alberto Guidaben, a 6-foot-5 center of Colegio de San Jose Recoletos, finalist in the Inter-Collegiate against eventual winner, Far Eastern University.

 

            This team, which had other invited collegiate players like Romeo Santos, Contrado Banal, Horacio Moreno, David Brodett, David Wong, Francisco Henares and Cesar Ijares are not only qualified but was a thorn on the side of the favored teams. It lost to Mariwasa by two points, 84-82, and to San Miguel Corporation, 110-105, in overtime. Mariwasa and SMC were the teams that disputed the title.

 

            Next came the Panamin, and more changes as rules were that no NCAA or UAAP player may play for any commercial outfit. Guidaben was good for one game and no more as he was downed by a bout of typhoid. Revilla got into a fight with Concepcion Industry’s Rogelio Melencio and was banned from play for two years, he being, as the Basketball Association of the Philippines said it, a “recidivist.”

 

            But Carvajal came in to fill Guidaben’s shoes and until the final day, the Redmanizers were in the thick of the race, losing only to eventual champion YCO in the closing minutes of the game, 89-81. Among the scalps Crispa collected were those of Invitational champion Concepcion Industries by 83-78; National Seniors champion San Miguel Corporation by 99-94; and hapless Komatsu, 103-89.

 

            Dalupan didn’t say so but he must have felt after a couple of test runs that his new mixture of Redmanizers was ready for the big test. In Crispa’s first outing in the National Invitational, Clark’s Diplomats was easily dispensed of at 104-87. Concepcion was next at 96-90. Shin Dong Pa sizzled for 48 points but Crispa prevailed over Medium Bank, 106-97, and in this game, Fortunato Co was able to check Shin to six points in the last 10 minutes of play.

 

 

 

            Mariwasa went the way of losers by 102-95, and Crispa toppled YCO, 98-96, in a game that saw the Redmanizers wipe out an 18-point deficit and blow up in turn a nine-point edge, 96-87.

 

            “Suerte lang,” (plain luck), gasped Coach Dalupan. But there, the Redmanizers were two wins away from another championship. How Crispa will be known by the time this issue goes off the press. San Miguel Corporation and Yue Loong definitely will be tough obstacles to hurdle, especially since tension will be riding the unbeaten Redmanizers hard all the way.

 

            But Crispa’s potent offensive line of Olympian Willie Adornado, averaging 21.8 points per game, pivotman extraordinaire Rodolfo Soriano, 19 flat; utility man Atoy Co, 18.6; plus 6-foot-6 Ed Carvajal, steady and reliable skipper Danny Pecache, and dangerous-in-the-clutch Chito Afable and David Cezar, this writer says what’s a limb for if not to go out on, so we do and say Crispa puts on a new crown.