Thumbs down to the UP Fighting Maroons, who lured their fans into getting their hopes up with an improved team featuring rookie Fil-Am Mike Silungan, whom Coach Aboy Castro described as a cross between James Yap and Dondon Hontiveros. True to form, they got plastered by La Salle. They should just go ahead and change their name to the UP Sucking Maroons.

Read my report on the UAAP Season 73 opening weekend over at FHM.

Philippine basketball has started to develop a small but vibrant community on Twitter, and Fire Quinito rounds up the best messages, in 140 characters or less.



Rain or Shine import Rod Nealy tweeted this shortly before his team was blown out by Ginebra last Friday. I think Rod got stood up by Destiny for their date. There are rumors though that Destiny was seen later that night leaving Ginebra import Chris Daniels’ apartment. You know what they always say… Destiny is a fickle bitch.



This tweet makes me wonder: Did Ed Ducut have foot surgery during his rookie year too? What about Boy Valera? Kevyn White?



Heh. In fact, the women who left a comment about James’ statement are just about ready to give him a “Husband of the Year” award. Yay to the power of social media!



Ok, I’m beginning to think Robby Reyes is tweeting these things to try to get into Fire Quinito.



Longtime favorite PBA scribe James Ty III (he’s the guy at the games constantly speaking into his tape recorder) fighting the good fight for Ateneo courtside reporter Jessica “Jessilicious” Mendoza. Chocolates, nice! Hard to argue with his taste.

So the rumors are true: Greg Slaughter, the 6’11” star center of the University of Visayas Green Lancers, is now redshirting for the Ateneo Blue Eagles to be eligible for the 2011 UAAP basketball tournament, Quinito Henson reports in his Philippine Star column. While Quinito downplays Slaughter’s transfer to Katipunan, instead playing up the center’s improvement while training with the Smart Gilas program, the story may have far-reaching implications.

Slaughter first flew to Manila to train with Gilas, a team bankrolled by SBP chairman Manny Pangilinan, who’s also the top patron of the Blue Eagles. It couldn’t have been coincidence that Slaughter chooses to transfer to the same school sponsored by his Gilas principal. Pangilinan pours huge money into Ateneo sports – “between P10 million to P12 million” a year, according to one Inquirer report – and it’s not hard to imagine him or his minions exerting influence on the SBP to steer Slaughter into making the “correct” decision.

I don’t begrudge Slaughter for this. He’s a young man with tremendous potential, so best of luck to him. He probably would develop a lot under the tutelage of Eagles coach Norman Black, a renowned teacher of big men, plus he could spend more time with Gilas. And whatever UV has to offer can probably be trumped by an Ateneo program that’s well-funded – so well-funded, in fact, that the school’s Board of Trustees is willing to overlook certain embarrassing behavior just to keep the money rolling in.

But while the brain trust of UV basketball composed of coaches Boy Cabahug and Al Solis will probably be able to buck the loss of Slaughter and remain competitive, this leaves a terrible taste in the mouth. Actually, it reminds me of the Japeth Aguilar saga. Somehow, I can’t help but get the impression that the SBP, as it exists right now, is not here to look out for the best interests of the whole Philippine basketball community as much as to make sure that each of MVP’s teams – whether it be Gilas, Ateneo, Talk N Text, or even San Beda – always comes out on top.

Now this whole incident with Slaughter could perhaps explain why the University of the East and the University of Cebu are so reluctant to allow their respective stars, Paul Lee and June Mar Fajardo, to join Smart Gilas.

Haven’t done a bullet/links post in a while, so here we go:

• Rafe Bartholomew had a lengthy, two-part interview at In the Bullpen (part 1, part 2), which delves not just into basketball, but Philippine culture and history as well.


• Ronnie Nathanielsz gave his new favorite sports patron, Manny Pangilinan, a tongue bath (as Rick Reilly would say) in last Friday’s column to show his support for MVP’s plagiarism issue. I laughed out loud when, in an effort to praise the PLDT chair, Nathanielsz compares Pangilinan to… Ferdinand Marcos!


• I may not agree with a lot of what he says, but I always look forward to reading Coach Chot Reyes’ candid Twitter feed. Last week, when Manila Bulletin’s Waylon Galvez was raising muck about his performance and hinting at the possibility of Talk N Text replacing him with Norman Black (who was recently hired as a team consultant), Reyes himself set the record straight: “Obviously, the writer doesn’t know what he’s talking about. My players and I get into it all the time. Better silence than sulking.” He also hints at Galvez having an issue with him: “Besides, that writer has always had the ‘hots’ for me ever since. I teach my players to embrace conflict.” Apparently, he embraces conflicts with sportswriters too. Awesome.


• Maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Pinoy Fight Scribe, one of the most promising boxing/MMA Pinoy blogs, is run by a guy from Talisay City in Cebu. I have been wondering why there aren’t more Pinoy boxing blogs with original content starting up. Hopefully the writer continues to update his blog regularly.
  
  UPDATE: Another promising Pinoy boxing blog: Underdogboxing.


• I really enjoyed the POC Sportacular’s two-part feature on UAAP rumors by Adrian Dy, culled from various sources. Who doesn’t love rumors? This is the type of thing I wish the guys over there would focus on, instead of more NBA recaps that could be found on every other sports site on the Internet. I would click on one of Dy’s NBA recaps and think, “Yeah, I liked this column better when Kelly Dwyer wrote it.” I hope they continue their coverage of the pre-season college tournaments, and not just when Ateneo is playing.


• We all know Quinito Henson has a few templates he regurgitates in his columns. When it comes to reinforcements, his specialties include Import Column A: the “Player with a rough background overcoming the odds” inspiring feature; and Import Column B: the “Import that misbehaves deserves to be fired” column. A couple of years ago, he ended up writing one of each for Sta. Lucia import Lee Benson, hilariously within two weeks of each other. Here he is at it again, writing Import Column A for Derby Ace import Lorrenzo Wade (whose name he misspells throughout the column). Hopefully he doesn’t have to write Import Column B anytime soon.


• Last week, I worked on a couple of reports for the day job on online campaigning and mobile campaigning. GMANews.TV also ran the online campaign story, and Fire Quinito makes a cameo in that website.


• While we’re on it, imagine this: before the big fight, one contender dares his opponent to take a test. Floyd Mayweather asking Manny Pacquiao to agree to a drug test? Nope, Manny Villar daring Noynoy Aquino to do a psych exam.