MICAA '73: A Postscript - Heroes, Highlights of a Stormy Season (Sports World, 1973)

Sports World Magazine

September 8, 1973

E.A. Perez de Tagle

 

 

It’s what could have been time for the MICAA, and Sports World pinpoints five incidents which in no little way contributed to Toyota’s magnificent triumph in its maiden year and only in its third tournament (including the time it played as Komatsu).

 

These are:

 

1.     The decommissioning of Willie Adornado of Crispa on a fractured left hand for seven games.

 

2.    The banning for life of Rudy Soriano and Rey Franco of Crispa.

 

3.    “Lax officiating” in the second game between YCO and Universal Textile.

 

4.    Orly Bauzon’s “Shot of the Year” without which Toyota would have made an early exit during the Comets’ semifinal playoff with San Miguel Corporation.

 

5.    Roger Melencio’s suffering a fractured rib in the second game of the championship series and his being lost to the Concepcion cause in the rubber match.

 

The 1973 MICAA campaign was, as far as memory serves, the most extensive, with two round-robins among 10 teams for an average of 18 games per team. As recounted in last week’s issue, Manila Bank played 15 and forfeited three, Squibb, CFC, Crispa, Mariwasa and U/Tex with 18 each: SMC 22, Yco 23, and both Toyota and Concepcion 24 each.

 

During which Mariwasa, the defending champion, strung up five wins in a row only to lose eight of its nine succeeding games including a 95-85 upset by Manilabank and finish seventh from the top. And Ciso Bernardo’s Consolidated Foods Corporation quintet upset SMC, 87-80 only to yield to Squibb’s only victory in the campaign in the Prestos’ very next outing by 92-91.

 

As the semifinalists took over, Squibb stood at 1-17, Manilabank 3-15, CFC 4-14, Mariwasa 8-10, Crispa 10-8 and U/Tex 11-7.

 

Crispa was the antonym of luck personified. With four wins behind them, the Redmanizers were leading the Concepcion Motorolas when Bogs Adornado tripped off Jimmy Noblezada. The resulting fall fractured Adornado’s left hand and Crispa went on to lose the game and five of their next seven.

 

Then, with Adornado back in the lineup and the Crispans still in contention, Rudy Soriano and Rey Franco were adjudged guilty of point-shaving in games played during the MICAA All-Filipino and they joined six other Crispans previously banned for life in the sidelines. Without them, Crispa lost two of its last three games and finished two games out of fourth place.

 

 

 

Note that before the Adornado disaster, the Redmanizers had whipped Toyota, 80-78 and YCO, 81-69; that Danny Floro’s charges only lost to SMC in overtime, 88-86 (with Soriano and SMC’s Boy Velasco being thrown out of the game for exchanging blows, each getting automatic three-game suspensions), and by 94-92 the next time around. (Crispa’s luck continued to sour even after the league ended. One of its mainstays, Fortunato Co, was found guilty of point-shaving and joined the ranks of the banned. Comparatively luckier were Jesse Sullano of Mariwasa and Ramon Lucindo of Concepcion, who each drew one-year suspensions for failing to notify basketball authorities of attempts to bribe them into shaving points.)

 

Crispa with an intact lineup would have been a tough match for any MICAA team.

 

U/Tex had the bad luck of starting off against top competition and lost four in a row before notching a first win. It was 4-5 coming home, when the Weavers started playing the games of their lives. First, Concepcion 81-78, next Toyota 82-76, then SMC 78-71.

 

U/Tex was in the process of adding YCO to its list of victims when Coach Lauro Mumar at a crucial point of the game recalled son Lawrence to the bench and kept him there. Without Larry, the Weavers fast lost ground and U/Tex absorbed one of only two defeats in second-time-around play.

 

Mumar explained afterwards that he took Larry out “to save him from mayhem.”

 

U/Tex finished a win shy of figuring in a fourth place playoff with Concecpion and SMC, and the last was seen – for the tournament – of Bay Mumar’s patented slowbreak tactics.

 

The Braves were ahead, 76-75, with seven seconds to play when the Comets made their last play. It was the second game of the semifinal playoff between SMC and Toyota, with the Braves toting a 70-62 first win. Alberto Reynoso dribbled toward goal and the SMC defense drifted with him. Reynoso passed back, to Orly Bauzon. With the big bulk of Big Boy as screen, Bauzon had a clear view of the basket. He jumped, and his basket in the last four seconds of play gave Toyota a 77-76 victory.

 

Toyota was back in the race, and there was no stopping the Comets from there.

 

(Joy) Dionisio did a Bauzon in the second game of the championship playoff series to give Concepcion a 73-72 triumph. The shot also came in the last four seconds, a lay-in after Dionisio managed to spin away from Bauzon.

 

But Melencio was under an x-ray apparatus at the Makati Medical Center and the attending doctor’s worst fear was realized: the 10^th rib on the left side was fractured. He had rammed against the massive leg of Big Boy on a lay-up and crashed to the floor with a thud.

 

Without Melencio, the Concepcion defense lost cohesiveness and the triumvirate of Big Boy Reynoso, Ed Camus and Mon Fernandez dominated the backboards in the finale, and only Concepcion obstinacy and never-say-die spirit made it a game until the last quarter when the Comets decisively pulled away.

 

 

Team Profile – Toyota: Shaky Start, Stretch Drive (Sports World, 1973)

Sports World Magazine

August 11-17, 1973

E.A. Perez De Tagle

It was as big a bash as could be, had any old noontime that press conference that was to propel the Komatsu Komets into the limelight of bigtime Philippine basketball last week of March. Only, it was not to be, because the morning dailies carried the news that Komatsu, together with E.R. Squibb and Consolidated Foods Corporation was still outside the MICAA looking in. So all there was for newsmen that day were a terrific lunch, a more terrific bevy of beauties, and Dante Silverio, wearing instead of familiar garb as one of motor racing’s aces a barong with the new bodyfit cut – affable, somewhat apologetic, at the abrupt turn of events but determined to make as good a go of the affair as could be.

 

If the frustration hurt, Dante didn’t show it. The show went on and the brand-new Komets were introduced.

Robert Jaworski, Alberto Reynoso, Fortunato Acuña, Francis Arnaiz, Cristino Reynoso, Ramon Fernandez, Rodolfo Segura, Ulysses Rodriguez, Edilberto Canamo, Edward Camus. That was nearly five months ago.

 

When the team was formed, Jaworski and Big Boy Reynoso were not yet sure they could play in the MICAA for they were nine months away from completing a two-year suspension for going after referees rather than the goal. The word was that the MICAA, regardless of how it acted on Komatsu et al’s petition for reconsideration, would insist in the event Komatsu was accepted that the two fully serve out their suspension.

 

All of which is water under the bridge. The MICAA reconsidered and took in all three teams. The MICAA also reconsidered and allowed the Big J and Big Boy to play. And now, Komatsu turned Toyota and Komets turned Comets are on the verge of a Cinderella finish in their first year of action.

 

But if anybody should say that all it takes to win a championship is to get Jaworski, Reynoso, Bauzon, Fernandez, Segura, Arnaiz and mix, Dante Silverio will be first to say not on your life. For the making of a team, he found out (Toyota Coach Claustro Verona whom everybody calls Nilo being a veteran cager knew all time) meant a lot of sweating it out. Practice, practice and more practice. Exposure to competition – the team grabbed every opportunity to play.

 

A good word from friends went for an invitation to join in from the Panamin organizer, Manda Elizalde. And Toyota (as Komatsu) was in its first tournament.

Was there a fairy godmother? Did the slipper fit? If there was, she didn’t show, and the slipper was big enough to wobble in. In other words, the guys now known as Comets dropped five games in a row to bring up the rear in the standings with YCO winning the crown.

 

The next tournament – the National Invitational – the Comets sat out, and they would have sat out the last meet for the 1972-73 season, too – the Palarong Pilipino – but for the failure of the UAAP to field a complete team. The university selection was scrapped, and Toyota moved into the slot.

 

It was much the same glory for their first game as they lost to Mariwasa, 79-84. But Bauzon was now playing together with Fernandez whom San Miguel Corporation decided to release. SMC must have rued it for Toyota scored Victory No. 1 in official play against the SMC Braves, 73-66.

 

Crispa and Concepcion prevailed against the newcomer, but the Comets dashed the NCAA selection, 102-77, and humbled YCO, 87-82, for a 3-3 showing. Dante and Co. were ready for the MICAA.

 

Saddled early with a setback (by Crispa) after an initial win against Universal Textile on MICAA opening day, June 3, the Comets next won six of seven matches to finish the first half of the marathon 18-game preliminary round second from the top on a 7-2 record, bettered only by YCO’s 8-1.

 

 

Like some other big teams, Toyota fell victim to Lauro Mumar’s foxy tactics in second half play, but as of this writing, appear certain of second place in qualifying round standings. At worst, it would figure in a three-way tie for second with Concepcion and SMC, a win in its last two games will cement second place, behind YCO which definitely has nailed first place regardless of the outcome of the Painters’ game with the Comets Thursday.

 

Why has Toyota progressed from whipping boy to championship form in just a matter of months? It was just a matter of weaving the team together, Nilo Verona would tell you. For the team on paper had everything: height in Fernandez, Camus, Jaworski, the Reynoso brothers, Bauzon, Acuña, Segura, Carlos Concepcion. Bauzon, Jaworski and Arnaiz can be excellent as court generals. Further, Toyota’s tall men except for Big Boy and a couple of others are fast and rugged.

 

Segura is beginning to blossom into a receiving whiz. Arnaiz’s outside shooting is deadly, Jaworski, despite a tendency to go individualistic, is not the Big J for nothing: he has the shots, the drive, the speed, the bulk. So long as he controls his temper, he is among the very best.

 

Big Boy, despite a bulging middle, has shown he is the best exponent of the hook – with either hand – hereabouts. His give-and-go plays with younger brother, Cristino, shattered many a tight defense.

 

Fernandez is impeccable when he wants to be. Belligerent to the point of hurting at first, he has foregone rough play in his last few games (his latest tactic was harmless: he tickled Fortunato Co just under the right floating rib everytime the Fortune Cookie kid had the ball) and concentrated on assists, at which he is smooth and slick.

 

Bauzon, seemingly relutctant to take shots because of so many good shots around is among the best spotters when he decides to take aim. A little encouragement from Verona is probably what Bauzon needs to start pumping in those long toms of his.

 

Sunday night, just after YCO throttled Concepcion’s bid to be YCO’s third conqueror in the tournament, the Comets lazed away practice time. Meaning they didn’t exert too much efforts, just loosened their muscles. But they were impressive in built, in movement.

 

“Ang lalaki (how big!),” exclaimed a boy trapped by Sunday night’s hard rains.

 

So long as it’s not their heads that grow, big things are bound to come out all right for the Comets.

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.