Handicapped Patriots determined to stop Slingers’ winning “Wei”s
By Jan Lin/Red Hoops. Photos by Lai Jun Wei/Red Hoops.
Slingers’ backup local point guard, Wong Wei Long belongs to the Slingers’ trio of “Wei”s, together with Hong Wei Jian and Desmond Oh Wei Jie. The “Wei” trio contributed 33 points in Slingers’ 96-72 wipe out of Satria Muda BritAma last weekend to continue the Slingers’ winning ways. (Photo 1 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
Underpinning the Singapore Slingers’ four consecutive ABL victories is a message that boasts of their depth. The traveling Slingers are well on course to extend their winning ways as the Philippine Patriots have been dealt a double injury blow ahead of their crucial home tie this weekend.
The Patriots’ key players – Nonoy Baclao and Christian Coronel – are reportedly still recovering from hamstring injuries. Point guard Coronel, who contributed 9 points in their 69-74 defeat against the Slingers three weeks ago, will be replaced by Froilan Baguion and Warren Ybanez.
But the 6’4” Baclao, who has only debuted for the Patriots after the game against the Slingers, is insistent on being featured in this Saturday’s showdown despite the injury.
Baclao is a star player of the UAAP (Philippines’ inter-varsity league) recently crowned champions, Ateneo Blue Eagles. Fellow UAAP stars, Elmer Espiritu and Val Acuña, were also brought in to beef up the team after the UAAP league concluded last month.
On top of the three new additions, Patriots’ head coach Louie Alas has also revealed his strategy of employing a full-court press this weekend.
The full-court press was the Slingers’ lethal weapon against Indonesia’s Satria Muda BritAma whom they demolished 96-72 at home last weekend. The game was also a test of depth for the Slingers as their Filipino point guard, Al Vergara, was forced to retire after picking up a knee injury.
Taking Vergara’s place was the backup local point guard Wong Wei Long, who shouldered the heavy responsibility with maturity and poise to finish the game with 13 points. Together with Hong Wei Jian and Desmond Oh Wei Jie, they form the menacing “Wei” trio of the Slingers.
“When I knew that I had to go on for Al, initially I was quite excited and nervous,” admitted 21-year-old Wei Long, “but I tried to overcome it by just getting myself to sweat it out, and the team helped me out a lot as well.”
Despite dropping nine three-pointers in four games, Wei Long is humble about his achievement. He said: “In my perspective, I don’t think I run the ball as well as Al does, I may score a lot of three-pointers but all these come from team work, where I managed to get the good shots.”
“I have to improve in commanding the big brothers,” said Wei Long, who may be the second youngest Slinger but he’s no doubt a young man with composure beyond his years. “I think that’s the biggest step I’ve to overcome when Al is injured, but I’m starting to pick it up.”
“I guess as they are the imports, the ball tends to go to them and the locals tend to be forgotten in the games,” Wei Long added. “The locals do get the ball but I personally feel that we will need to have a better balance in that, so that our opponents will respect us as well.”
The local Slingers did indeed catch the eye of their opponents last week. A thoroughly impressed Fictor Roring, Satria Muda’s head coach, said: “The fantastic thing about the Slingers is that the imports and the local players can blend together and play as a unit.”
Even Slingers’ local development player, Prasad Sadasivan, was given the rare opportunity to get on court with four other locals in the game’s dying minutes. In the 1 minute 25 seconds he was on court, he downed a 2-pointer to seal off a memorable evening for the hosts.
Wei Long said cheekily: “I’m very proud to say that I was the one who passed the ball to Prasad to score! I was very excited about that! It was fantastic having five locals finishing the game. I just feel that the ABL is a very good opportunity for our locals to play on a big stage.”
With only four imports on the ABL roster, Wei Long’s fellow local Slingers Hong Wei Jian and Desmond Oh Wei Jie have taken turns to be the fifth starting Slinger. The “Wei” trio contributed 33 points (of 96 points) in blowing out Satria Muda last week.
Wei Jian and Wei Long were also tied in third place in points (13 points) last week. The 24-year-old Wei Jian also bagged a hat-trick of 3-pointers, while Desmond “pillar of defense” Oh has been head coach Frank Arsego’s starting five choice in the last two games.
Wei Jian started in the Slingers’ first two home games, while Desmond was handed a surprise starting five slot when the Slingers traveled to their first road game in Brunei a fortnight ago.
Arsego said: “As our program grows, certain players in the program are going to grow as they continue to develop. Desmond has really applied himself, training-wise and his commitment to defense. And there will be opportunities for the other guys to have that responsibilities to step up. That’s all part of the whole learning and growing thing for our group.”
The Slingers-Patriots match will tip-off on Saturday, 4pm, at The Arena in San Juan City. Satria Muda BritAma will host the Brunei Barracudas on Sunday, 3pm, at the BritAma Arena in Jakarta, while the KL Dragons will visit the Thailand Tigers on Monday, 8pm, at Bangkok’s Nimibutr National Stadium.
Slingers’ Desmond Oh Wei Jie was handed a surprise starting five slot for the first time a fortnight ago in Brunei, and was again Arsego’s starting five choice against Satria Muda a week later at home. (Photo 2 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
Slingers’ Hong Wei Jian was tied with Wei Long in third place with 13 points for the team in last weekend’s game against Satria Muda. The 24-year-old Wei Jian also bagged a hat-trick of 3-pointers last weekend. (Photo 3 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
GO SLINGERS!!!!!! Bring back the win!
THE WEI TRIO!!!!
FLYBOY WEI. LONG-RANGER WEI. ‘D’-GLOVE WEI. Hope that the 3 WEIs will shine once more.
Why would Alas reveal his strategy (full court press) on an upcoming game? That means there’s another strategy in place..
I’m waiting for the next Slingers home game (KL)…I’d like to see Rudy Lingganay play against Al Vergara. I’ll probably watch it live..
I haven’t seen this Rudy play before…..I’ve only seen highlights of his game against Thailand… impressive first game (27 points, 5 steals, 3 assists)..even dropping floaters against the American Imports, so far the best performance by an ASEAN player..
The other new import of Tigers is very impressive…with these 2 plus their shooters, I think KL can contend for the crown.
@mart Chris Kuete is the import from Cameroon, he looked impressive too.
Bring on the full court press! I am pretty sure Frank has spent the whole of last week drilling the slingers to break the press. Secondly, the slingers seem to be in better physical shape than all the other teams, lets see how long the patriots can keep the press up before running out of steam.
If Al is not playing, then WWL starts at the point, I was thinking if they are going to play a full cout press all game then WWL will need to be backed by Marcus at the point cause I don’t think Michael has the ball handling skills to break the press? I wonder how Frank is going to handle the lineup cause obviously its very tough to make WWL play the whole game without any rest.
If all the Weis can get a consistent game in, the X factor is going to be Marcus who can take them over the top to win this one.
Hope to see slam dunks from both sides. Both teams will have lots of chances for breakaways (one side breaking the press and the other side stealing the ball for uncontested baskets).
Let’s just hope the game will not be sloppy for either side.
I’ve watched the ABL highlights last night, I hope to see ASEAN players start hogging the limelights.
I’ve looked at the TV guide, they’re not showing the game in ESPN or Starsports?
I’ll try to look for a live streaming of the game in the net.
i was just thinking since this is an ASEAN league the forumers ought to stop bashing each other and just promote basketball instead…i mean this could be a starting point for a pan-asean relationship based on mutual understanding…singapore has a lot of promise but i think the country still needs a lot of motivation to really put basketball in the mind set of its population…
@amir Very well said, national pride is indeed on the line but intead of having a dispute all the time, we should take this opportunity to learn from one another.
I am with you Amir. We are all together here. I have played University Basketball in the Philippines being married to a Malaysian with in-laws in Singapore and a good friend of Thailand import Ricky Ricafuente but currently based in Brunei.
I am a basketball purist with type B blood (basketball blood running in my veins). For now I root for Brunei Barracudas but I believe Asean Basketball is the way to go. So young kids, don’t miss the opportunity. Play Basketball. You don’t know what you are missing. It will help you to have a sound mind and sound body.
@amir- inculcate those words of yours to slingerrocks.
But then again, this is a site run by SINGAPOREAN, and primarily covers the SINGAPORE Slingers.
Imagine, say an American going to Barcelona Basketball forum and say Barcelona is lousy, cannot beat NBA team etc, what do you expect from the Barcelona fans?
This is a space for SINGAPORE basketball fans, so we have the right to sing praise of our team here. The Pinoy can say anything they like in Pinoy fan forum, I don’t care! But if they come to our place and be hostile, then we will be hostile to them.
Otherwise, we can live peacefully with each other. As we always do with all the Pinoys, Whites, Blacks, Chinese nationals, Koreans, Japanese etc in this cosmopolitan society.
I am sorry @Nameless, but this is NOT a space for Singapore basketball fans ONLY. This is a site for ABL – why do you think there are articles from the other matches?
This is NOT a space SPECIFICALLY for Singapore basketball fans. This is a space for ALL fans of the ABL.
Yeah sure, you have the right to sing praise for the Slingers here, but so do fans of other teams and nationalities. No reasons for hostilities anywhere.
So please don’t misunderstand and hold the fasle impression that Red Hoops is a for Slingers and Slingers only.
If you want to relate this to football, think of it like soccernet that only covers one competition.
Hi Nameless,
To clarify the position of this site: Red Hoops may be an initiative of Singaporeans but it is not affiliated to the Slingers or pro-Slingers in any way. It is a home for ALL ASEAN basketball fans : )
Just as how ABL is the brainchild of Datuk Tony Fernandes, who is a Malaysian, but it is not a league just for the Malaysian fans or that the KL Dragons should therefore have more privileges than others. : )
Red Hoops was started to celebrate the inauguration of the ABL as well as the success of all 6 teams in the ABL. Through a Pan-ASEAN site like this, we actually hope to use sports (basketball) to encourage the sharing of ideas across cultures and cultivate mutual respect for differing opinions from fans across the ASEAN region.
There may be more stories on the Slingers because we have more access to them since we are based in Singapore, but we have begun working closely with the media agencies in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, who feed us with news and information of their local teams.
Whenever we receive press releases of the other 5 ABL teams, we will put them up to give as diverse a coverage as possible. So at the end of the day, we’re building a home for ALL ASEAN basketball fans. : )
Jan & Screws, this is good to know! You clarified redhoops role in the new ABL League & I look forward to reading all the articles posted, yet I am truly a Slinger Fan of course!! I so hope there is no hostility by any Team Fans at any of the games as this does not show true loyal support to that fans Team.. Cheering for your team is great, not rude obnoxious crazed fans! I think all Teams in this league should expect respectable behaviour from their Fans & not a hostile environment that will not change the outcome of any game but will show the ignorance of those type of fans…
@Screw & Jan:
Thanks for the clarification. Because RedHoop is kind of link to RedSport, so naturally it is seen to be more Singapore then anything else.
But I’m just not happy at the Pinoy fans who refuse to give the Slingers credit at all and give rubblish like Jimmy Arroyo did on the main RedSport site. That is not respecting your opponent. And it is not just limited to RedHoop and Redsport. Even the facebook page is also full of nonsense from the “Pinoy” (I use “” because they are saying they are Pinoy), some even making racist remark. Just check the latest post of the announcement for the Slingers-Patriots match.
—-
On another note, if this is for all ABL fans, then there is another worry: where are all the Malaysian, Indonesian, Thai and Bruneian? I know the Tigers has a FB group and website, Satria Muda has their site in Bahasa Indonesia, Brunei has bruneibasketball.com, but the Thais?
I was thinking… maybe it’d be better to name the teams after their home cities rather than home countries. At present, only the KL Dragons are representing a city. Wouldn’t it be better to call the Thailand Tigers or Philippine Patriots the Bangkok Tigers or the Manila Patriots? That way, you could have room for teams like the Chiang Mai Nagas or the Cebu Conquistadors. Naming the teams after a country somewhat precludes the possibility of a another team in the same country.
@Deana and Nameless
You guys can read a bit more about what we do and who we are here – http://redhoops.com/about : )
@Nameless,
You are right that there is an association with Red Sports, pretty much the same crew running both sites, however, if it’s just for the Slingers then there is no need to start a brand new site for them : )
If it makes you feel better, I guess you can see how as the league is still in it’s infancy, so there is no solid basis for anyone to give the Slingers credit just because they’ve won 4 consecutive games. I believe that the respect will come naturally if the Slingers continue their unbeaten run and win the Championship in February. And come the second season, Slingers fans like yourself will have a basis to make your case – because consistent results and numbers do not lie : )
If it interests you about the other clubs, the Slingers and Satria Muda can be considered the only established ones because they are pre-existing clubs (with fans) prior to the ABL. Satria Muda’s fans are used to all things being in Bahasa Indonesian – so having things in English is quite novel to the fans and even the club itself.
We are getting Filipino fans not really because of the Patriots, but just by virtue that basketball is their “national sport” so anything basketball would interest the Pinoys to check it out. In other words, the Patriots have not quite established their own fanbase, which is why a lot of the discussions always go back to Philippine basketball – that is the reason why they are here not yet because of Patriots.
Thailand Tigers, KL Dragons and Brunei Barracudas are all new clubs, in other words, small or no fanbase yet. Their local media will have to work hard to promote them. The good news is, unlike Singapore, the local media of Msia and Brunei are very supportive of local sports, so I believe that it’s a matter of time their following will pick up.
Also remembering there is a language barrier for the Thais. And the Tigers are yet to hire a PR, so that explains the little exposure on them – we’ll see if things pick up for them when they engage the services of a PR agency to promote them. But it’s still early days for ABL or Red Hoops, so there is reason to stay optimistic still : )
@Kettch – I believe eventually that’s where the ABL ideally will head towards if Datuk Tony Fernandes’ vision is having 10-20 teams competing in the league. We can envision seeing clubs named after specific cities than just the country : ) As this is the maiden ABL season, so having a ‘national’ representative will draw the entire nation’s attention to the league – helpful for countries like Thailand where basketball has low visibility and for the Philippines where there are so many good leagues in the country the ABL will have to compete against for recognition. : )
And I just want to commend the views of @Amir and @Basketeer in facilitating an insightful discussion of the sport on this space : )
@mart, you can check the ABL highlight of round 4 on 8tv, Friday midnight, 12.45am.
Since Rudy “Little Warrior” Lingganay (as we, the fans, would like to call him) only arrived 24 hours prior to the game against the Tigers at Kuala Lumpur, KL Dragons had the advantage of the surprise elements as none of the Tigers staff knew about them (the new three players) as there were no official release regarding it, unless they read pemainbolakeranjang.blogspot.com
So, to say that KL Dragons have what it takes to claim the crown is premature. As the Malaysian really need to step up in order for KL Dragons to be the best in the Asean region especially in the psychological department.
Let see how the Dragons do during their visit to the northern region, Monday, 8pm bangkok time, Live @ Star Sports.
Nevertheless, there are a lot of potential and good things that can arise from this league if you see it from the bigger picture (instead of just winning/losing or nationality). And only people with such vision, such as Dato Tony Fernandez realize this. Lets hope for the best of everyone.
See you guys on 22nd November
There is actually a number of basketball forums where you can find a heavy number of pinoy posters.. Interbasket.net, pba.com.ph, asia-basket (they use to have a forum, dont know if it still exists), and hoop nation.. I myself is a regular poster of interbasket.net because I like to follow the progress of our National Team (Smart Gilas)..
It so happened that redsport and redhoops looks to be the unofficial ABL website since they are more updated and have quality contents (like stats, news, etc.). I dont think the other ABL team’s website, and the ABL website itself is as complete as resdport.So it’s actually a compliment if this forum is being flooded by Filipino posters. And I suggest you should get use to it because when it comes to Filipino’s favorite sport, the 3B’s (basketball, boxing, and billiards), you could be assure that there will be a heavy traffic of Filipino posters.
Not against Pinoys, but against all Slinger haters, please give some credits to the Slingers and our local boys. Stop insulting them and saying that they can’t play. They are playing very very well, so please give some credit to them. Who has hit the most 3 pointers in the ABL? Not even Al Vergara, but “Long-ranger” Wong Wei Long. Even imports have not hit as many threes as him.
If Slingers win, I hope that the Slinger-haters will stop whining and say how Slingers should have lost because 2 Patriot players are injured. Our very own Al Vergara is injured too.
Jan! Is there going to be a live feed of the game today… I am 16 hours behind you & Singapore website says 8:00 p.m & your article says 4:00 pm?? What time can I read the game? TY!! Slinger Mom
@Deana It’s 4pm local time, which is about 40 minutes away
Here’s the live stats : http://www.fibalivestats.com/matches/4466/01/09/94/27c5G3UAoYmQ/
@Deana
Yes the game has started at 4pm, I don’t see the FIBA stats working and we’ve got only one man working ‘live’ on site today, so we will only have a post-game story after the game ends. Sorry!
Slingers are trailing 8-20 end of first period!
The stream: http://www.unlitv.net/2009/07/tv5-live-streaming.html
Jan & Gordan!! TY!!!!! Fibalive stats is working… Slingers behind eekkss… 36 – 25…
End of the first half– Patriots up 36 to 23. Still possible for the Slingers to get back in the game, but they have quite a mountain to climb to get there. Al Vergara looks visibly hurting, his lateral mobility seems a bit compromised. Still, he’s giving his all– a testament to his professionalism, especially given that he’s playing in his home country against a hostile crowd.
I’m hoping the Patriots are able to keep up their intensity. Nonoy Baclao is proving a force on the boards and on defense– he seems to have recovered nicely from his hamstring pull. And Jason Dixon is a man transformed, showing the intensity he displayed when he played for Coca-cola and Guandong. He’s challenging the Slingers’ defense in the paint with his post-up plays and keeping Jeffers out of his comfort zone on the other end of the court.
@Slingerrocks, do you prefer your crow fried, boiled or roasted?
Wow, not a bad result considering the team only have 8 guys, I think Al will have to play through the pain for now.
live feed froze!! oh noooo but TY Gordan!!
& the pain continues to our Slingers…. oh that sucks…
low blow on Jeffers… he will be back in….
& the comenentarys still find his injury there funny!!! jerks!!
@Deana Well, with 8 guys in the rotation (including Al who’s injured), I think it’s been a real good effort so far. Unfortunate that two of them got chicken poxs when they were there.
Seven minutes and change in the 4th. Patriots 52, Slingers 42– this is turning out to be a defensive game. Patriots’ offense is starting to stagnate– “dump it inside to Dixon” seems to be the only play they know.
Come on Slingers!!!
@Deana: The low blow wasn’t intentional. When you’re a sub-six-foot point guard being guarded by someone standing a full foot taller than you, your shoulder winds up somewhere along the region of the family jewels.
I forgive you because you’re a woman. Most men actually find blows to the nuts amusing– mainly because we’re experienced it firsthand and we’re glad it’s happened to someone else and not us.
*starts singing “Shadenfreude” from Avenue Q*
Jeffers played with Brandon Powell & his brother in the 7th & 8th grades… my goodness a small world we live in…. lol
Final score Patriots 7O, Slingers 53. Time to start serving up that crow. I’ve noticed Slingerrocks has been strangely silent throughout the game. Open wide, boy.
I’m not gonna make any excuses for the Slingers team but if there was a team that was handicapped, it wasn’t the Patriots. I hope the two players recover from chicken pox in time for the next game
Gordan I had no idea 2 of the guys got Chicken Pox!!! OMG that is not good at their ages…. I hope they heal fast…..
I just read back ketcch!! lol… It was the commentary guys that kept laughing about it that ticked me off… this was not Jeffers first low blow, trust me! Family jewels are fine… Seeing him a minute later I knew he would be back in… I have been a BB mom for 20 years & seen it all with him… lmao!!!
Well 4-1 is still better then 3-1… lol
Slingers did very well considering the sickness & injuries… take care & enjoy your weekend.. TY so much for linking the live game… oh so happy to see it….
slingerrocks i am waiting for your comment… wahahaha. almost a 20 point deficit, injured, sick or not that was quite a trashing. the slinger bench is weak.
The game was not on ESPN, Starsports..and the live video stream apparently have problems…This is very frustrating.
Also, I’ve looked at the official stats, still zero blocks for both teams…are there no locks in the game????
somebody must have forgotten that shot blocks is an official stat.
How’s the crowd atendance?
Hi Deanna! When guys laugh about someone getting it in the jewels, it’s only from a vast sense of relief that their own nuts are intact and unhurt.
This explains why some of the most watched YouTube videos are of skateboarders and rollerbladers grinding down steel bannisters, only to lose balance and POW! land with the bannister right between their legs.
4-1 better than 3-1? Well, yeah, but remember the only reason the Patriots are a game behind was because the Brunei game was postponed due to inclement weather.
Anyways, a good result since it removes the mystique of invincibility that has surrounded the Slingers ever since they went up 4-0. Playing field’s a bit more even, and the other teams now feel that the championship is anyone’s for the taking.
And Jake, I agree; Slingerrocks is QUITE conspicuous in his absence.
And injuries? Hell, Froilan Baguion was playing with tendinitis in his left knee. Christian Coronel was out as well.
They cannot name Patriots as team of any city or region in the Philippines yet…. 2 different venues (San Juan and Pasig Cities) for the 2 home games..they’re probably checking out the city that will give the best support for the Patriots.
A Cebu team versus a Manila team will be nice to watch…
I just hope Vergara was not heckled too much..his family is there..
slingers are already exposed. just put up a good defense on the their imports (jeffers, lablanc and vergara) and the game will be easy…
slingers has a good system, a good coach and 3 good imports…the rest are like high school players… oops may be freshmen college players…
considering that the patriots were formed 3 weeks before the ABL opening,and they just had their final lineup 2 weeks ago…i expect more from them as they jell and get to know each others..
seriously, i dont even know who those patriots players are except baclao and esperitu. both just finished their career in the college basketball…
slingers need another import, a power forward/center type of a player.. they have the money to lure those who cant make it to the PBA…
LOL, It’s not injuries, it’s a disease, talk about a weak bench, we didn’t have a bench, we literally had 3 players on the bench.
lol.. you had 2 high school caliber players that didnt play but it aint matter… slingers is all about jeffers, lablanc and vergara.
you need another asean import..
But hey ,all credit to the Patriots, they played really good defense.