Sports World Magazine
May 12, 1973
For a winner, Virgilio (Baby) Dalupan sounded unsatisfied. “Credit it to determination and the fighting spirit of my boys,” he said of Crispa-Flor’s victory in the National Invitational. But, he said, for Crispa-Floro to stay up there, “we’ll have to tighten up on plays, sharpen combinations and maximize teamwork…”
As of now, Baby thinks Willie Adornado as the team’s best shot does not get enough support from his teammates. Adornado’s baskets are fashioned out “mostly on his own,” says Baby, with minimum of screen or feed.
Rudy Soriano “still commits too many errors,” which Baby believes could be minimized “with a little more careful playing…”
His ball carriers, Atoy Co and Rey Franco, “still have to develop the knack of maintaining balanced play…” By this, Baby meant a ball carrier’s role of setting up an offensive play at the same time being ever primed to defend in the event of a turnover.
“Both boys hang on to the ball too
long, wasting precious time dribbling. Franco many times commits himself
irrevocably so that a block or a rebound play finds him way away from his
position….”
Co, who Dalupan concedes, is a better than average shot, tends to be individualistic especially when miffed. There had been cases when Co would haul in the rebound, dribble all the way and score. “It’s spectacular basketball,” Baby says, “but not good basketball…”
Danny Pecache came in for a share of tsk-tsks. “Maybe it’s because of the added responsibility of being team captain,” Baby said, “but Pecache now plays a little more tense, a little more uncertainly…”
Does this mean he would institute changes in the lineup come the next MICAA series?
“Of course not,” Baby said. “I just wanted to show that our team won with such shortcomings, and that determination and fighting spirit, everything else equal constitute 90 percent of winning a game.”
“My team has the talent, height, scoring sock, youth, dedication, just about every attribute essential for the molding of a superior team.”
“If Adornado gets his assists, Co and Franco learn to dribble less and pass more, Soriano cuts down on errors, Pecache steadies, I’d even say Crispa-Floro would be the team to beat in the next MICAA.”
“For these boys are my mainstays, make no mistake about it, they are, for all their lapses, the people I rely on.
“By the next MICAA, I have the feeling these boys, who know their basketball from A to Z and more important, know how to adjust, will be a much more potent outfit than the one that clinched the National Invitational, what with Ed Carvajal and the Cezar brothers, Chito Afable and Rey Pages by then weaved effectively into the team’s play and patterns.”
“I repeat, credit the National Invitational win to determination and fighting spirit…but I’m looking forward to Crispa glory of 1969-72 being duplicated by my mixture of oldtimers and newcomers…Danny (Floro, team owner and manager) and I are agreed we already have the material on hand, and that this team might even be better than the record of the Crispa team then. One thing I know, this team is going to try awfully hard to up that 90 percent gauge to 100…”
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