Two losses

It's a bitter to swallow but we have to accept the fact were beaten in the last two games of our NBTC D-League, held at San Beda Alabang last Sunday, Nov. 9.  

First,  the games were supposed to be played on Saturday, Nov. 8 (as announced by the league officials:  playdays are Saturdays).  When they announced the sudden transfer,  I knew it was coming.  I CANNOT coach the team, since I still have to attend to the Masses for the people entrusted to me.  That is my first priority on a Sunday, not basketball!

I already had to miss supervising the practices last Tuesday and Thursday (Nov. 4 & 6), as I was in Baguio attending the Social Action Assembly.  I was instructed by the Archbishop to attend this as the assembly would tackle good governance as one of its main subjects.  (I was given the mandate to plan for the formal launching of our "Task Force on Good Governance" in the Archdiocese/Province under the aegis of the Lipa Metropolitan Province chapter of the Bishop-Businessmen's Conference for Human Development.

Good that Laguna had only 20+ (21) point advantage over us.  They beat Lucena by 33 and Cavite by 66 during the opening.  This Laguna team which has 10 players from San Beda  Alabang.  they only had 12 players.  The last time around they played with only 13 players.  Gee, I smell something fishy here as each team has to have 15 players to play during one game and 18 players in the roster.  Of course,  there is a proviso that a team member can only play 2 full quarters.  But we were made to understand that 15 players (5 per quarter) is the normal procedure.  I had to bring this matter to the attention of Eric Altamirano.  Otherwise the good intention of the Developmental League would be defeated.  It would be winning as the goal and not teaching proper fundamentals to the kids.  

Then,  during the opening we were made to play our next game 25 minutes after we finished our game against Cavite.  Lucena had a good two hour rest when they played against us.  The understanding is that we would have been given one-hour rest.

This time,  the organizers were the ones who insisted that Lucena be given the one-hour break.  Fortunately for them,  the last game ended early and they had more than one-hour rest. Goodness, ang babait ng mga taga-Batangas!  Pumayag na rin.

We lost to Lucena.  I wasn't around (as I had to go back. See story below).  I was told that the referees did us in.  It was a close game daw!  We lost to them by 22 during the opening.  I was told that we lost, because of bad officiating at the closing minutes of the game, by less than 10 points.  

What is important is that we are following the guidelines and the modules of NBTC.  What is important is that the kids are learning to play with the correct fundamentals.  What is important is that we are molding the team from different schools, coming together only last October and made to play together as a team in a league which stated October 25, become a team of hard-working players.