Garcia rues import ‘overkill’

Letran senior men’s basketball team coach Caloy Garcia said the other day he’s looking forward to the season when the NCAA finally gets rid of imports but the wait will take up to 2020. Although the Knights will be crippled without 6-7 Raymond Almazan at the slot starting the next campaign, Garcia refused to entertain notions of recruiting a foreigner to fill the vacuum.

Before the start of this year’s hostilities, the NCAA Board ruled that this will be the last chance for schools to enlist imports. Under the two-year residency rule, it means the league will have washed out imports by the beginning of the 2020 season at the latest. The UAAP has still to decide on whether or not to crack down on imports.

Garcia said employing imports to play for a school in the NCAA or UAAP is an “overkill” that destroys the opportunity for local bigs to excel. “In the NCAA, only Letran and San Sebastian don’t use imports,” he said. “I know the Letran priests frown on it. They’d rather give Filipinos the opportunity to play. It’s really a dead-end street for imports because after playing in the NCAA or UAAP, where can they go? They can’t be drafted into the PBA. I don’t think they’re good enough to be naturalized for Gilas. Look at Sam Ekwe. He played for San Beda, brought them three titles but where is he now? Look at Sudan Daniel, where is he now?”

Instead of foreigners, Garcia said the NCAA and UAAP should welcome more Fil-foreigners. “There is a lot of Fil-foreign talent out there,” he said. “Unlike imports, they can be drafted into the PBA and even play for the national team. After all, they’re Filipinos. The problem with imports is they stunt the growth of our local bigs who don’t get a chance to play much because coaches prefer to use the foreigners. I think it’s common knowledge that these imports are paid to play so even that doesn’t sit well with the collegiate spirit of competition.”

Garcia said he is aware that some schools would rather not recruit imports but to be competitive, they’re left with no choice. “You can’t blame some schools because with other teams bringing in imposing imports, they’re at a disadvantage,” he said. “So they end up enlisting imports, too. But this new NCAA rule will put a stop to all that once and for all.”

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This season, some of the NCAA imports were San Beda’s Ola Adeogun, Emilio Aguinaldo College’s Cedric Happi, Perpetual’s Nosa Omorogbe and Lyceum’s Aziz Mbomiko. In the UAAP, the foreigners included NU’s Emmanuel Mbe, UE’s Charles Mammie, Adamson’s Ingrid Sewa, UST’s Karim Abdul and FEU’s Anthony Hargrove.

As for Letran, Garcia said he gets headaches just thinking about the what-ifs and what-could-have-beens in Game 3 of the NCAA finals against San Beda at the Mall of Asia Arena last Saturday. “We weren’t even supposed to make it to the Final Four so credit to the team for getting that far,” he said. “Nobody expected us to play in the finals. We’re losing Almazan so we need someone to take his spot next year. If we don’t find someone, we’re in trouble.”

Garcia said breaks of the game decided the NCAA championship this season. “It could’ve gone either way,” he mused. “Rey (Nambatac) had an open layup that would’ve given us a one-point lead. I saw coach Boyet (Fernandez) closing his eyes, like he knew it was going in and was about to call a timeout.” But Nambatac missed. Then, Art de la Cruz hit a difficult turnaround one-hander to give San Beda a three-point lead, 57-54, with 1:03 remaining.

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Still, Letran refused to crumble. Guard Mark Cruz drove in then dished off to a wide-open Ford Ruaya for a quartercourt jumper to cut the deficit to a point, 51 seconds left. Yvan Ludovice was later fouled by Cruz and sank 1-of-2 free throws, time down to 29 ticks. That was when Cruz left the floor with cramps. Without Cruz, Letran had no orchestrator for the next crucial possession.

Kevin Racal went for the potential tiemaker but center Adeogun blocked his layup. Racal could’ve passed off to Almazan underneath and avoided a swat. Almazan was open as Racal drew out Adeogun. Time was down to 8.6 seconds. In San Beda’s next possession, Racal almost had a steal but the Lions recovered and Adeogun closed it out with two free throws. It was tough for Garcia to watch Letran implode with his chief playmaker watching from the bench.

 Fernandez never panicked throughout the pulsating contest even as Letran led by six at the half. He motivated the Lions to roar like they’d never roared before in the last two quarters. The victory added another trophy to his collection. Fernandez previously captured championships as coach of Sta. Lucia Realty in the PBA and N-Lex in the PBA D-League. He gave up his job as Meralco assistant coach to concentrate on San Beda and to this day, doesn’t regret it. A 12-year PBA veteran, Fernandez has always been known for his high basketball IQ which now benefits the Lions. He isn’t just a brilliant tactician. Fernandez enjoys sharing his knowledge, he isn’t selfish, he’s humble to a fault. He’ll never take credit for any of his championships, that’s why his players will spill their guts out for him on the court. Fernandez, in his first year with the Lions, has now led San Beda to a four-peat and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.