Green Archers’ Preseason Report Card

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The De La Salle Green Archers’ preseason officially ended two weeks ago and their UAAP campaign is set to get underway this July 10 against UP. Before we start on the team's prospects in the upcoming UAAP, let’s take a look at how the team performed in the last Fil-Oil Flying V Invitationals.

The team started the tournament on a high note, notching two straight wins against Letran and EAC. After their first loss to a much-improved UP team, the Archers stunned Ateneo before heading off to Chicago for a two-week training. Things got ugly upon their return as they absorbed consecutive blowout defeats at the hands of Perpetual and San Beda. La Salle thrashed Arellano to nail the last quarterfinal berth before bowing to eventual champion San Sebastian in the knockout playoffs. They ended their preseason with a 4-4 slate.

Using the grade-point system, we made our own assessment on the team’s preseason based on several categories.

Archers, guess what? You’re all going to the quarters

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With San Beda’s 100-76 win over Perpetual today, the De La Salle Green Archers advance to the quarterfinals of the Fil-Oil Flying V Preseason tournament. They will face current NCAA champion San Sebastian Stags this Wednesday at 6pm in a knock-out match for a slot in the semis.

Here are some more highlights from yesterday's game:

Ferdinand's asserting himself inside. Yes, he had a few miscues, but it wasn't for lack of aggressiveness. He even had a chirpy session with an opposing big, and was called for an unsportsmanlike foul after being bumped and trash talked while walking back after one of our baskets. He's not going to back down against anyone. I liked his willingness to attack inside, and his newly found ambidextrous form which allows him to take a hook or floater using either hand. And he's always a threat when we take foul shots and miss (a common occurrence), because he's quick enough to track down the carom for a putback. Just a little more discretion on what moves to make, and he'll be a force in the paint for us.

Simon, when he's on, is a threat from the long court, and his heads-up play allows him to create a break after a rebound, spotting teammates sprinting for our basket and getting it to them in the optimum position to score. Coach Dindo is utilizing him more and more as a 2 or 3 together with Tolentino, Vosotros, Elorde, and de la Paz, and this gives the team a lot of flexibility and speed, and gives our press that much needed quickness. We saw how effective the press could be with this quick lineup. Simon's improved decision-making and on-court judgment might position him to be the much-needed leader of the team this year, if he keeps it up.

No excuses for Green Archers’ Friday loss

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I agree, no excuses. We lost last Friday, because the team didn't play well enough to beat the opponents.

I'm not the coach, so I don't know what the objective of joining this pre-season tournament is. But let's take a look at 2 scenarios and see what the possible implications are:

1) The objective is to win this tournament - If so, then expect the coaches to play all out to win as many games to get to the playoffs, then prepare specifically for each game to try to win the title. This assumes that the coaches already have a core team in mind. The best players will see the most action, so the rotation will be short, maybe a maximum of 10 players. Those outside the rotation will probably see floor time only during garbage time, when the game is out of reach either way, or in the last few meaningless seconds of a quarter, or when they need a body to foul an opponent and don't want the rotation players to sacrifice a foul. Our rotation players will probably improve, but our bench will effectively be a lot shallower because the bench players won't get much exposure.

2) The objective is to maximize the exposure of the players in preparation for a strong showing in the UAAP - If this is the case, winning the tournament will be secondary to preparing for the UAAP wars. We'll see a lot of experimentation and rotation of players, to give them more confidence and allow them to become more familiar with each other and the patterns designed by the coaches. The downside is that the team may lose some "winnable" games against teams perceived as weaker.

It all depends on the objectives of the coaches. We may want the team to win every game, but if the coaches "must have" is to prepare for the UAAP, then winning might just be a "nice to have". The proper pacing of the preparations has always been a trademark of past Archer champion teams. Pre-season tournament championships are nice, but the real prize is the UAAP championship trophy. The team will peak sometime around the end of the first round of the UAAP, and by then we'll know whether this team has what it takes to go all the way.

One possible concern if the team goes all-out in the pre-season is the risk of possible injuries that may affect a player's performance in the UAAP. Remember that last year, Arvie was never 100% in the UAAP due to a groin injury he was nursing in the pre-season.

One of Stephen Covey's 7 habits is "begin with the end in mind". Our coaches have their end objective. How they get the team there might be inferred from how the team is performing today.

Archers fall to Altas. Was it just Jetlag?

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With the Green Archers’ shocking 56-71 loss to the UPHDS Altas today, many are beginning to think that maybe the 2-week Chicago training does the team more harm than good. It’s too early to tell, but for some, they fear the team’s breakdown in 2009 will repeat itself.

Last year the Green Archers had a great start in both the Fil-Oil and Nike preseason tournaments before they left overseas. When they returned, the team’s fortunes for the rest of the year took a turn for the worse. The Archers suffered a series of setbacks that eventually took them out of contention in the preseason. The bad luck carried over into the UAAP wherein the Archers finished 6th and failed to reach the Final 4 for the first time. The postseason was no different as they got knocked out immediately by a short-handed Letran squad in the first round of the PCCL.

The loss was totally unexpected. Many were hoping that the team would perform much better after their training. The Green Archers were simply out-of-sync with only two players scoring in double digits. The boys’ intensity on both ends was evidently lacking as they allowed the Altas to score at will.