Fair Play: Why SAC doesn't suck in basketball
EVER since the Sportswriters Association of Cebu started getting more active last year, one of the “unfortunate activities” of the group was joining basketball tournaments.
It’s heaven-sent for other members, but I call it unfortunate for the simple reason that I can’t shoot a basketball even if it means winning a date with Maria Sharapova.
There may be a lot of basketball-loving folks in the group, and some could shoot a trey blindfolded, but it doesn’t mean a SAC basketball team is a good one.
Against SAC, the opposing team only has to show up on time to beat the group.
And teams, no matter how small the contest, it seems always want SAC on the opposing side.
I guess it helps with their league’s publicity if they include a bunch of sportswriters in the mix.
Enter Dave Ting, Dennis Que and Dave Lim—our three SAC imports.
The three Ds are the reason why SAC made it to the semis in a couple of tournaments. They are also the reason why, in SAC’s first tournament, we could afford to have a “practice player,” a gulat coach, “spiritual adviser,” and a “defensive coordinator,” moping in the sidelines while they save us from the latest hole we got ourselves into.
I’m reminded of the 3 Ds help to SAC because of the foiled comeback of the RP team against Chinese Taipei in the Jones Cup.
Against Chinese Taipei A, the Philippines erased a 16-point deficit, only to fall short.
Against one of the best teams in the IBP league, the Super Idols, SAC erased a 23-point deficit, only to fall short.
It was by far, the greatest foiled comeback I ever found myself with. I was that practice player.
We could have won, if not for Lim’s missed free throw, but you don’t blame a workhorse you whipped till he could give everything he could for missing a single step, can you?
We erased a 23-point lead and lost by seven, in overtime. Minus the three imports, we could have trailed by 50 at half time.
When the Super Idols were ahead by 20, Lim and Que—who are multiple MVP winners in the City’s oldest alumni league— perhaps embarrassed to be in a team that trailed that much, started working.a
And with three seconds left, we were down 62-60 and Lim had a chance to ice it for us after he was fouled in the three-point line.
We didn’t win, of course. Had we won it, it would have been a banner story splashed in the three papers’s main sports page, complete with stats, interviews and sidelight too.
But thanks to the three imports, SAC doesn’t suck, in basketball.
Because of the three, SAC has the courage to face lawyers, teachers, architects, even in their leagues, and win, too.
BINARY BOWLING. A few members of SAC went bowling, the other night, at SM, thanks to M. of SM (Who said, like a certain editor/vocalist, he saw the light and didn’t become a priest).
There was a bowling tournament on one part of the lanes and it was quite fortunate that they didn’t realize the people on the other side of the alley were sportswriters.
They would have stormed us, “You’re the guys who write ‘only scored a 190’ and you can’t hit a darn pin!!!”
Save for one editor and a columnist, who hit the high 100s, the rest of us barely scratched 100.
If they placed pins in the “canals,” we would have hit a perfect game. One member though, finished one digit short of a perfect game.
That member, who shall forever remain anonymous, had a binary score in the first seven frames: “0 0 0 0 1 0 1,” en route to a 30.
Just one zero short of a 300.
After copying the bowlers’s kick in his throw, the binary score guy managed to hit a few strikes.
It’s heaven-sent for other members, but I call it unfortunate for the simple reason that I can’t shoot a basketball even if it means winning a date with Maria Sharapova.
There may be a lot of basketball-loving folks in the group, and some could shoot a trey blindfolded, but it doesn’t mean a SAC basketball team is a good one.
Against SAC, the opposing team only has to show up on time to beat the group.
And teams, no matter how small the contest, it seems always want SAC on the opposing side.
I guess it helps with their league’s publicity if they include a bunch of sportswriters in the mix.
Enter Dave Ting, Dennis Que and Dave Lim—our three SAC imports.
The three Ds are the reason why SAC made it to the semis in a couple of tournaments. They are also the reason why, in SAC’s first tournament, we could afford to have a “practice player,” a gulat coach, “spiritual adviser,” and a “defensive coordinator,” moping in the sidelines while they save us from the latest hole we got ourselves into.
I’m reminded of the 3 Ds help to SAC because of the foiled comeback of the RP team against Chinese Taipei in the Jones Cup.
Against Chinese Taipei A, the Philippines erased a 16-point deficit, only to fall short.
Against one of the best teams in the IBP league, the Super Idols, SAC erased a 23-point deficit, only to fall short.
It was by far, the greatest foiled comeback I ever found myself with. I was that practice player.
We could have won, if not for Lim’s missed free throw, but you don’t blame a workhorse you whipped till he could give everything he could for missing a single step, can you?
We erased a 23-point lead and lost by seven, in overtime. Minus the three imports, we could have trailed by 50 at half time.
When the Super Idols were ahead by 20, Lim and Que—who are multiple MVP winners in the City’s oldest alumni league— perhaps embarrassed to be in a team that trailed that much, started working.a
And with three seconds left, we were down 62-60 and Lim had a chance to ice it for us after he was fouled in the three-point line.
We didn’t win, of course. Had we won it, it would have been a banner story splashed in the three papers’s main sports page, complete with stats, interviews and sidelight too.
But thanks to the three imports, SAC doesn’t suck, in basketball.
Because of the three, SAC has the courage to face lawyers, teachers, architects, even in their leagues, and win, too.
BINARY BOWLING. A few members of SAC went bowling, the other night, at SM, thanks to M. of SM (Who said, like a certain editor/vocalist, he saw the light and didn’t become a priest).
There was a bowling tournament on one part of the lanes and it was quite fortunate that they didn’t realize the people on the other side of the alley were sportswriters.
They would have stormed us, “You’re the guys who write ‘only scored a 190’ and you can’t hit a darn pin!!!”
Save for one editor and a columnist, who hit the high 100s, the rest of us barely scratched 100.
If they placed pins in the “canals,” we would have hit a perfect game. One member though, finished one digit short of a perfect game.
That member, who shall forever remain anonymous, had a binary score in the first seven frames: “0 0 0 0 1 0 1,” en route to a 30.
Just one zero short of a 300.
After copying the bowlers’s kick in his throw, the binary score guy managed to hit a few strikes.
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