Ginebra Looks To Change Fortunes

Ginebra Looks To Change Fortunes

By DING MARCELO
January 2, 2013, 7:19pm


The hiring of Alfrancis Chua as head coach of the floundering Barangay Ginebra basketball team is a dramatic indication that the team, one of the jewels in the San Miguel Corporation sports crown, is badly in need of an overhaul, perhaps, even a transformation.

Barangay Ginebra is undoubtedly the most popular ball club in the PBA where rabid followers watch its game much like a religious flock drawn to a church service. Gin Kings fans treat Ginebra games as though they are obligations.

But even the most fanatic sports fans can tolerate setbacks only so much. Barangay Ginebra must also win to keep the fervor burning.

The team had a middling performance in the ongoing All-Filipino Philippine Cup, where it finished 7-7 and was knocked out in the quarterfinals by Rain or Shine.

Enter Alfrancis Chua whose job is cut out for him: Reenergize the fan base and carry the team to the top.

But is the 44-year-old one-time whiz coach the right man for the job?

Chua has not had a PBA coaching stint the past 10 years. After leaving Sta. Lucia in 2003, Chua practically roamed the PBA scene like adisplaced executive carrying a briefcase filled with CVs and glowing recommendations looking for opportunities. The one that came along was a consultancy with San Miguel. That gave him a foot inside the conglomerate.

Now his whole body is in, back on the bench, and people will be wondering what he will bring to the table after being out of action for nearly a decade.

Hiring Chua marks the second time in recent memory that San Miguel reached out to someone not belonging to the SMB family.

The first was Tim Cone who was yanked out of Alaska where the American mentor had served the Uytengsu franchise faithfully for 22 seasons.

Cone, who replaced interim coach Richard del Rosario at B-Meg, now known as San Mig Coffee, made a quick impression at the home office as he guided his new team to a runner up finish and then a championship a conference later.

Why SMB is not tapping its usual reservoir of former SMB standouts and other protégés of the stricken Ron Jacobs could not be fathomed, but a reason that comes to mind is that it hopes to duplicate Cone’s dramatic impact on B-Meg.

But Cone has a welter of achievements behind him. The guy has a brilliant track record, including a grand slam in 1996, in his 13 PBA titles with Alaska.

On the other hand, Chua is zero as coach of Tanduay and Sta. Lucia where he is remembered as a driven coach, but always given to whine and who lashed at referees unmercifully, like Yeng Guiao, at every perceived bad call.

“Pahiyang lang ulit,” said the affable Robert Non, chief of San Miguel’s basketball operations, after announcing the change. Non’s mind is like a hoops laboratory always looking for the right chemistry or formula.

Whether that means Non is trying out Chua on a performance basis is not known, but Chua will have to produce like all others tapped into this situation. He only has to keep in mind what happened to Ato Agustin. The guy had a championship in his rookie year with Petron but he lasted just two more conferences after Petron flamed out successively under his watch.

Source: Manila Bulletin