No vacation for Blackwater

MANILA, Philippines - It won’t be an early vacation for Blackwater after all even as the Elite has been eliminated from contention in the PBA Philippine Cup. Team owner and Ever Bilena chairman Dioceldo Sy said yesterday training will go on during the Christmas holidays and 7-1 import Chris Charles will arrive today to start getting ready for the Commissioner’s Cup which opens Jan. 27 next year.

“Just because we’ve been eliminated is no reason for us to stop training,” said Sy whose teams have won championships in the PBL, WPBL and PBA D-League. “In fact, because we didn’t win a single game, we should double our training. The conference isn’t over for 10 teams and I don’t think we should rest while they’re still playing. It’s not like we earned a vacation. We’re reevaluating our lineup. Anyone who doesn’t like the idea of training during the holidays should think twice.”

Sy said he’s throwing his full support behind the coaching staff led by Leo Isaac in making Blackwater a contender. Although the Elite finished the Philippine Cup eliminations at the bottom of the standings with a 0-11 record, there were several close calls along the way. Blackwater lost to Meralco, 83-75, in overtime and were competitive in games against Kia Sorento, Barangay Ginebra, Rain Or Shine, Purefoods and Talk ‘N’ Text.

Sy said strength and conditioning coach John Aquino is joining the squad to put the Blackwater players in shape. Aquino has worked with players like Asi Taulava, James Yap, P. J. Simon, Bryan Faundo and J. R. Cawaling and popularized the House of Pain Gym. On the players side, Sy recently recruited PBA veteran Val Acuna and former Adamson star guard Jerick Canada. Acuna made his Blackwater debut against San Miguel Beer last Tuesday. Sy said he plans to bring Juami Tiongson and Cawaling to sister team Jumbo Plastic in the PBA D-League for seasoning.

Blackwater fielded 17 players in the Philippine Cup and only Faundo averaged in double figures with 11.5 points a game. The rotation included four rookies Tiongson, J. P. Erram, Bacon Austria and Brian Heruela. The current lineup has five players who are 30 and over, namely, Eddie Laure, 37, Sunday Salvacion, 35, Paul Artadi, 33, Larry Rodriguez, 31 and Faundo, 30.

Sy said Canada and Charles will be the Blackwater version of John Stockton and Karl Malone. They played on the HiTech Bangkok squad that won the ABL title this season. Canada, 25, was picked on the third round by Ginebra in the 2012 PBA draft but has never played in the pro league. The 5-7 point guard has played on two ABL championship teams, the Indonesia Warriors in 2012-13 and Bangkok this season. In the ABL this season, Canada averaged 11.2 points, 3.6 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 2.0 steals. He outdid himself in the ABL finals against Kuala Lumpur, averaging 20.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists in the best-of-three sweep.

Charles, 33, never averaged more than two points in 91 games over four seasons with the Villanova varsity but gained a lot of experience playing in the NCAA Elite Eight in 2006 and the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2005. He polished his skills under Villanova coach Jay Wright and legendary big man mentor Pete Newell. Undrafted by the NBA in 2003, Charles went overseas to further his basketball career and played in the Dominican Republic, Serbia, Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia before landing in Bangkok. He has participated in workouts with the Chicago Bulls, Minnesota Timberwolves, Milwaukee Bucks and Utah Jazz and once joined Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah with the Bulls in the NBA summer league.

In the summer, Charles often trains with former Villanova teammate and now Denver Nuggets guard Randy Foye. Another Villanova teammate was Toronto Raptors star Kyle Lowry. Two former PBA imports who attended Villanova and played in the NBA were Stewart Granger and Dwayne McClain.

Charles was named Best Import in the ABL this season after averaging 20.5 points, 14.1 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 3.7 blocked shots with HiTech. He also shot 45.2 percent from the field and 64.9 percent from the line. In the ABL finals, Charles averaged 18.5 points and 15.5 rebounds. During the regular season, he registered three 20-20 games and hit a high of 37 points in 32 minutes against Laskar Dreya. In 2013, Charles was named Defensive Player of the Year in the ABL with the Chang Thailand Slammers under Kobe Bryant’s father Joe as coach.

Blackwater and Kia will be allowed to recruit an import of unlimited height in the Commissioner’s Cup for finishing 12th and 11th. The ninth and 10th placers will also be permitted to play an import without a height limit. Imports of the top eight placers will be restricted to 6-9.

An area that Isaac will focus on in the gym is execution in offense. The Elite finished last in offense, averaging 75 points and second to the last in field goal percentage at 37.6. On defense, the team allowed 88.5 points a game and a field goal percentage of 42.2. A bright spot was Heruela who averaged 9.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 25.8 minutes in four games. The 5-10 guard was the 26th overall pick by Blackwater in the draft last August. He played alongside JuneMar Fajardo at the University of Cebu during their collegiate days.