NCAA 95 Preview: Mapua Cardinals

Key Losses: Exie Biteng, Cedric Pelayo, 
Key additions: Jasper Salenga and head coach Randy Alcantara

MANILA, Philippines – Welcome to Homegrown Pride Year 2 with former star Randy Alcantara now on the sidelines for Mapua.

Many of the stars who helped the Cardinals win two titles in the NCAA Juniors are here. Joaqui Garcia, Jasper Salenga and Warren Bonifacio are here. Paolo Hernandez is on board. But others have decamped. Will Gozum, Sherwin Concepcion, Mike Enriquez and Clint Escamis all went somewhere else. 

Had the four of them been in Cardinals red and gold, I’d say they will be highly competitive this year.

But no. 

The question that should be posed to this year’s Cardinals goes like this: Is it more of the same as last year or will you all have grown experience and maturity-wise? 

It is good to see Randy Alcantara at the helm after some stop-starts. In him, they have one of the best young coaches in the game (he’s won in the NCAA Juniors and in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League in addition to the titles he won as a player for Mapua). So there is continuity in the system that he ran with the Red Robins and now with the Cardinals.

Looking at Mapua, this is a small ball team that needs their bigs to really stand tall in the middle. You cannot have undersized players like Justin Serrano and Warren Bonifacio man the slot (at least for this season as the foreign players are still there). 

They need Christian Buñag to play steady and solid ball with Arvin Gamboa providing quality minutes. They need to be solid rim protectors too. More often than not, the basket is like a lay-up line for opponents.

What I like about this team is many players play multiple positions and they all crash the boards to fix their rebounding deficiencies. In fact, except for three players during the summer, everyone else played at least 10 minutes per game. So you know they will be called upon to contribute.

Four players were averaging double digit scoring during the summer — Bonifacio, Denniel Aguirre, Serrano and Laurenz Victoria. That’s good because you need a lot of players putting up points on the board. 

Again, I would like to reiterate Buñag’s game. He needs to get going. During the summer, there was a conscious effort by his teammates to get him the ball. I noticed that when the ball goes his way, it is either for a turnover or he doesn’t do too well. I can’t say everything is his fault. Sometimes, the entry pass takes too long and the quicker defenders are able to poke the ball away.

However, when he comes off a pick, runs the floor, or clears the board for a put back, he is effective. Just some food for thought.

Having said that, the Cardinals are also a patient team. They move the ball around and find the open man. Unlike years ago when they had Exie Biteng and JP Nieles was shooting like there was no tomorrow, this is a team that like to take the ball to the rack. After all, they have plenty tough players.

That’s begs this other question: Will they play ball or brawl? This is a team that tends to lose its cool if they are getting blown out. I am not a fan of that and I do not think the coaching staff should allow that. They don’t need that stuff because this team has talent.

They need people to gain more experience while others need to step up.

To sum it up, the season will come down to how they play as a team and how their bigs will perform. The small ball will not get them anywhere.

And there’s the matter of playing defense. During the summer, they surrendered the most points (average) by a team — 81.1 per match. And they put up 72 a game. 

Yes, they can score. But can they stop foes? They can rebound, but can they make it harder for opponents to score on them?

The homegrown pride is good. But they have to make serious moves because the veterans are graduating.