Doubting Mark Caguioa

It wasn’t too long ago when almost everyone was thinking whether Mark Caguioa can still find his old form. And why not? At that time, The Spark was nowhere near his old self.

Caguioa who was known for his explosiveness looked sluggish and was a step slower than the others, also once known as the most feared scorer in the PBA, Mark looked more as a casualty for his team, leaving the thousands of Ginebra fans frustrated with the way their hero has been playing after a layoff which lasted for almost a year.

Indeed, injuries will do that to you. And when one player suffers recurring injuries much like Mark suffered, it’s tough to comeback. It will take heart, pure will and determination for a player to return to his old self after several injuries. And as a fan, it’s tough to see your old hero struggling. It’s not hard to think that it’s almost impossible to see him back into his old form.

But I guess people gave up on the Spark early.

This conference, it’s safe to say that the Spark is back.

Mark Caguioa is now having his best conference since the 2006-2007 season wherein he averaged 24 points per game and was named into the mythical first team. Mark shined despite sharing minutes with two of the best shooting guards in the PBA in Willie Miller and Ronald Tubid, averaging 16 points, 4 rebounds and a tad below 3 assists in only 28 minutes of action per ball game. Mark ranked 5th in scoring, only behind Powerade’s Gary David, Derby Ace’s PJ Simon and James Yap and Alaska’s LA tenorio. He was Ginebra’s best performing local and could be on his way to his second best player of the conference award.

But you can only see the real value of a player in the most important games. In the quaterfinals, battling a very good defensive backcourt of Rain or Shine composed of Gabe Norwood, Ryan Arana and the likes, Mark Caguioa upped his average to 18.3 points and 8 rebounds per game, including 30 points and 11 rebounds in the do or die game of the series. In the semis against the younger, quicker Smart Gilas-Philippine National Team, Mark complimented the dominating series of their import Nate Brumfield by averaging 14 points and a tad below 7 rebounds per game, cementing his spot as the most consistent local in the two series played by the Barangay Ginebra Kings.

Clearly, in the two previous series wherein Ginebra played, it shows that the play of Mark Caguioa is the barometer of Ginebra’s chances of winning. In their five wins combined in the quarters and the semis, Mark averaged 19.8 points a game and 7.6 rebounds per game, while in their losses Caguioa’s averages goes down to 6 and 6 per game. It’s apparent that a Caguioa explosion is vital to Ginebra’s chances, even with the abundance of scorers in the Ginebra roster.

Now marching on their way to the finals, Ginebra needs Mark Caguioa to steal the show in order for them to bring home another title to the hordes of Ginebra fans all over the Philippines, and knowing Mark Caguioa, he’s more than willing to step up to the challenge. He’ll shoot, he’ll score and in a game or two, his determination could hurt Ginebra by taking too many shots.

But if anyone is doubting whether Mark has the ability to carry Ginebra all through out the finals? You better think twice, cause he’s back to doing what he does best..

..proving critics wrong.

San Miguel vs Talk n Text Game Notes, with um, Notes

Here’s my game notebook for game 3. Was able to catch the game end of 2nd quarter coz I had some work to do that pays the bills (very unlike this basketball posting)

Since I covered only half the game, I’ll insert additional notes (ITALICIZED) on my game tweets.

• whoa, traffic. im home. im pickin up the game, 3rd quarter. and walah, magoo marjon on screen. my fave.
• andy says human nature, tnt will slack off. thats exactly what i said to my betting fella. im for smb tonyt. to the tune of 200 petot. (and I did win 200 pesos)
• tnt 37, smb 47, after an ali peek FTs. if tnt wins, im expecting trivias galore from ali peek. all night. (ali peek’s on court serious demeanor, fierce game, menacing looks, intimidating physique are completely opposite of his off-court personality. he is actually a cool guy on twitter. btw, tnt lost and ali was absent on twitter land last night. unlike paul artadi, win or lose, he’s tweeting away!)
• alapag no respect whatsoever with artadi’s shooting, or lack there of.
• cabagnot with back-to-back assists to danny i. maybe danny i supplies alex cabagnot’s mane & tail. tnt 56 smb 44
• remember when i said, enrico villanueva is p*rn lead male star look material? so is jared dillinger. (ok lets do this, who are the sexy film materials in the PBA, Enrico Villanueva, Jared Dillinger, Rudy Hatfield of course, James Yap makes the list. But for sexy comedy film, run away winner is Wesley Gonzales.)
• another pass by cabagnot to danny. tnt misses and cabagnot hits two. i can smell my 200 pesos already.
• jared with a nice pass, to chot. (turn-over TnT)
• even 20 point lead by smb. 66 – 46. cabagnot is holding court.
• danny i mvp 2001, still playing productive ball 10 yrs after his mvp year. (very few players lasted another 10 years in the pba after winning his MVP.)
• johnny a faded 10 yrs after his lone 1996. alvin did not get to 2007 after winning his last mvp in 1997. mon fernandez retired 6 years later after winning 1988 mvp.
• (Other players who lasted another 10 years after wining their MVP…) jawo played 2 decades later after winning 1978 mvp. and paras won 1999 mvp again after winning 1989 mvp.
• smb 72 tnt 53. speaking of johnny a, jason castro is touted to be next johnny, why cant jason fulfil the promise? (why? because johnny a, though super quick and fast, he was calculated and never out of control. And Abarrientos’ mid-range shooting game is deadly. He has better basketball IQ than Castro too.)
• coach chot pulling out his stars, ah yeah, the mind games. (I believe Chot Reyes off-season sideline is being a speaker, or motivational coach, I think he has an outfit or business along that line. and he haz parlor too!)
• lemme me just say that jared dillinger is the most sosyal kangkarot in the pba now. (and i hope you understand kangkarot)
• hall of fame kangkarot is… jayvee gayoso.

End of third quarter, time now for the Twitter invite. Follow HOOPH on twitter and improve our follower ratio improve to 3 is to 1. 3 real followers to one “bot” follower. (By the way, since the last game tweet I had, we gained 20 new followers, by that rate, by 2157, we’ll have 2000 followers! yay!)

• start of 4q. carey scores 2. smb 77 – tnt 58. scary moment for smb, danny s is down.
• this is dangerous for tnt, theyr giving smb tooooooooo muchhhhhhhhh confidence. this could carry over to the next game. make d game close. (mark these words, after this blow-out, SMB regained the momentum, they will win game 4. wanna bet? seriously, wanna bet, 200 pesos max. my food allowance ill bet it. kids don’t try this on your baon)
• oreta and castro with some classic hits targetting alex. im telling you, alex’ hair is starting to be the envy of the league. (i think today they were fined by the league 10k each.)
• HOW CAN YOU NOT SHOW MICA ABESAMIS WHEN SHE SPEAKS!?
• cabagnot doing his best steve nash impersonation. (but he carried the ball that time.)
• oreta hesitated on his shot, and he missed. next game it will be coach chot who will hesitate to put him on floor.
• ok now lets take a look at mica abesamis now… http://hoops.blink.ph/2009/03/07/mica-abesamis-takes-over/
• is there any other player who got surname that describes him well? cmon, mick penissi is the runaway winner!
• timeout, geez i dont even know the score. ah here…
• 87 61 smb, but fonacier scoring a 3. 8:02 left in the 4th qtr. (via @nicole_eunice)

Inserting a commercial here… HOW ABOUT BUY SOME DSLR Accessories here.

• (Back to the game) asi taulava, pretty good. his surname reflects his physique.
• bong hawkins, the hawk. not bagay. that guy didnt jump (fly) his whole career. (other players whos name/surname fit them… Paras – me anghang ang laro, Jolas- parang madulas, Samigue, Samboy – tunog umeere, Joey Sta. Maria – parang mabait, Limpot, Ricky Brown, Rabeh Al-Hussaini – parang mahilig sa kebab, Topex, Yancy – tunog ng ayaw makipag banggaan sa ilalim, Reavis – parang mapang-sisi na kakampi, Mark Macapagal – sounds like he’ll shoot the ball whatever happens)
• ANDY JAO: “you know the TNT is completely being outplayed here.” DUH? and the sun will rise tomoro. (by the way, ill take andy jao as the analyst most of the time, but when the doc starts talking about nba when I know, he doesn’t follow nba hard like many of us do, i am thankful, the tv manufacturer did not forget to include the “mute” button on the RC.)
• uy, nadito pala si rich. (alvarez, FIRST PICK! FIRST PICK! FIRST PICK! FIRST PICK! FIRST PICK! FIRST PICK! FIRST PICK! FIRST PICK! FIRST PICK! FIRST PICK! FIRST PICK! FIRST PICK!)
• smb 97 – tnt 75. garbage time.
• @hooph c(k)abagnotan translates to damuhan… So cabagnot..is madamo..ehehe go figure… (via nicole_eunice)
• i think ill pass on that “damuhan” and cabagnot corelation. :-)
• @nicole_eunice dick pennisi FTW.
• smb with a 21 point lead, and sunday is bloddy mess. heads to the dugout.
• and it ended with that lead, 21. danny i mvp of the game. time now to greet his folks all over.
• for smb to win the next game, i think they need to retire mick. then let mick pennisi to do some pep talk.
• didnt catch the whole game but happy coz i heard some of my fave lines from mico halilli, “bibical proportions” “sunday special” & KABOOM!
• @mbrmrph yes dear, did not mention his name or anything bout him now coz of the situation. hell be stronger im sure. our prayers.
• final score 103 – 82, smb ftw.
• geez just what the world needed, alex cabagnot, in the dugout, on towel, wet hair and all. is the director um… forget it.
• coverage over, our help wants to watch wowowee prime time edition
• speaking of willing willie, how long is this show btw, its 9.30 already and still the girls are gyrating still.
• excluding @shalanisoledad of course. she doesnt dance. “kantanong” thats her line.
• my last non sports twit of the day. either willie is a revolutinary tv man or people TV taste is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy low. his show is a cheap friggin piyesta show on air and its a hit show.
• by the way, this twitter game coverage is brought to you by dragon katol. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToSXFkjCu1k
• this is twrap. twitter wrap. twrap.

The series is heating up, likely, I’ll do this again on Game 4. Join me please. Pretty please.

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I Wanted Magic

After Lakers game 6 close out of Denver, I wanted Magic for the Lakers, now I got it…

Speaking of Magic… Abra-kadabra, wooshhhhh, the King is Gone!

I witnessed that.

Sorry David Stern, sorry Nike, sorry BTV, the Kobe-LeBron dream showdown was spoiled by the Magic. LeBron has left the Building.
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Polls: 2009 PBA All-Filipino – Who Will Go All The Way?

It’s but fitting the we end this poll today. On the last game of the conference, Alaska got 44% of the votes. Tonight, TnT would like to point out to those 44 people who picked Alaska that they are wrong. Game 7 tonight, at the Araneta Coliseum.

Talk N Text OR Alaska… P500 Danger Zone

Supposed to be, I’ll do a live game blog now, but my internet connection is moody at best, just like Cardona’s game. From a spectacular semis clincher, to a stinker finals first game. And so, live blog is canceled. Will still try in the second half though.

After Mac Cardona sucked big time… 6 of 21 fgs and firing out of set plays thus they have no chance of getting offensive rebounds coz his teammates are clueless when and where and HOW he’ll fire the shots… and he registered 8 mega turnovers as well…

I am now only 3 games away from losing P500.00. I am for TnT on this PBA all filipino finals.

Man, P500 can already buy me decent t-shirt or 2 pcs of SCRED SHIRTS. =)

LA Tenorio, in the words of Chot Reyes, ate TnT guards the last time. May I say too, Tenorio sniffed them? To the detractors, saying that ALASKA made a bad move in getting Devance for the right to get Solomon Mercado, look who made the right choice now says Coach Tim Cone. But I highly doubt if Tenorio could register high 20s scoring in this second game.

By the way, Joe Devance had a decent 14 points in the first game.

The game will start in a few minutes. Ranidel De Ocampo will suit up this time (he’s suspended in game 1).

Hopefully, TnT bounces back and GO ALL THE WAY. If you are a TNT fan, vote for them, in the HOOPS poll. GO HERE.

Update: January 31, 2009

Here’s Willie Miller doing the Game 2 post game press chat…