After an impressive outing with the Singapore Slingers, Al Vergara is making a return stint to the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).

Vergara, who was the chief playmaker of the Slingers during the recent ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) season, has made the final roster of the Barako Energy Coffee Masters in time for the upcoming 2010 PBA Fiesta Conference set for this Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum.

The 5-foot-7 guard averaged 9.4 points, 2.9 rebounds and 3.3 assists as he helped the Slingers gain the league’s second-best record after the regular season with a 10-5 card. Unfortunately, the Slingers were booted out by Indonesia’s Satria Muda BritAma in a best-of-three semi-final clash.

But his stint with the Singaporean side earned him the attention of the Filipino-based ball club, which was coming off a disappointing 3-15 record in the Philippine Cup but was able to beat powerhouse team Talk N’ Text during the middle portion of the conference.

Vergara is one of four new players on the Barako roster as the team also signed up cagers from the ABL champion Philippine Patriots in Rob Wainwright, rugged forward Jerwin Gaco and guard Christian Coronel.

Vergara and Coronel, who played backup to Patriots starter and ABL Finals MVP Warren Ybanez during the recent season, and holdover Paolo Hubalde are expected to share minutes at the point guard spot.

Coincidentally, the addition of the three new players plus Vergara came after Barako Coffee agreed to a deal that will have Harbour Centre, owned by the Patriots’ Mikee Romero, as the team’s sponsor.

Prior to his stint in the ABL, Vergara had a short stint with the Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants (now known as the Derby Ace Llamados) in 2008 before signing with the Slingers in September of the same year.

He was also a member of some of the Harbour Centre teams that won seven consecutive Philippine Basketball League championships from 2006-2009 and previously helped Montana Pawnshop win a PBL title in 2005.

In college, Vergara helped St Francis of Assisi capture several Universities and Colleges Athletic Association (UCAA) and National Capital Region Athletic Association (NCRAA) titles in the early part of the last decade before making a name for himself in the commercial ranks.

The Coffee Masters will play the Sta Lucia Realtors to start the new PBA conference this Sunday with American Sammy Monroe as import.

Frank Arsego took the Singapore Slingers to a 10-5 win-loss record and second place during the regular season of the ASEAN Basketball League. The Slingers eventually bowed out of the semi-final playoffs after going down 1-2 to Satria Muda BritAma in a best-of-three series.

Arsego resigned his position as head coach of the Slingers to return to Australia to be with his family. Before he left, he gave this exclusive interview to Red Hoops.

Les Tan, redhoops.com: What’s your take on the basketball scene in Singapore?
Frank Arsego: The word I would use to describe the basketball industry in Singapore would be potential. I do see tremendous opportunity and potential for basketball in Singapore, especially for the men’s side. They now have a fully professional team which young guys have something to aspire to within the region and the opportunity to represent Singapore.

There are also a lot of good foundational building blocks in place. Singapore has an established association, a good school system and basketball is one of the number one played sports in the schools. They also have a national team program as well as junior programs (U-15 and U-17 national teams). All these blocks mean … certain pathways for players to develop themselves and move into a professional environment.

But there needs to be someone to work with the athletes in an elite environment, bringing the athletes together with more coaching expertise. Also, to educate them in the skills required to be a professional athlete. If they (Singapore Basketball) can do that with the younger guys, before some of the little things like deciding their education paths and National Service in the later years, it would be great for basketball.

These programs have to be for the 13-18-year-olds. These ages are the most crucial for the athlete as these are the years that most greatly influence and develop the athlete. There might also be athletes of this age group that can go further up the learning scale because of their mentality and passion for the sport. It is for these athletes that there should be an elite training environment.

For the younger ones like those under 13, you want them to enjoy the sports and have fun. At the same time, it also needs to be educational where they are learning the basic fundamental steps to playing basketball in a fun environment. Then as they grow older, there is a more serious look at the development of the fundamentals in a more competitive environment.

The biggest thing would be to maximize the potential and this would be done by working with coaches to send the right messages to athletes to develop their fundamental skills and the whole package of the game.

Les Tan, redhoops.com: What are some of the highlights for you working with the Slingers?
Arsego: A personal highlight for me would be the opportunity to put together the first ABL team for Singapore.

Another, of course, was finishing second in the regular season with our 10-5 win-loss record. That was a very special highlight because it is an indication and a tremendous reward for the five and half months of work.

There were many smaller individual highlights during certain games and with players stepping up and delivering.

But the main highlight would be taking this group to another place of high standing within the region. Some say that the Slingers got where they are now because they have imports, but the reality is, every other team have imports as well. It was a very even playing field in my eyes and we move through all that with the resources that we have.

We climbed from where people think we might be, maybe fifth or sixth, to being one game from being the top team in the competition. So that, to me, was one very special highlight.

The final one would be having a group of guys, getting a product out of them and getting our basketball community in Singapore excited. The highlight would be creating a greater interest that might not have been there in the past and getting our name out there.

Last night I went to a function at Swissotel and the doorman grabbed me as I was getting out of the cab and said, “Slingers! I had a great time this season and I love the games! I can’t wait for next season!”

When you meet people like that, you feel that you have made a connection through sports. A coach wants to be successful and win championships but if a coach doesn’t make a connection with your fans, he is not really doing his job.

Another would be getting Singapore fans to learn how to be involved and learn from the other fans that come into the stadium. As we were fighting on the court, the fans were doing the same thing in the stands! Not in a physical manner, but you know what I mean!

Les Tan, redhoops.com: Did it cross your mind to bring your family over to Singapore?
Arsego: We have a unique family dynamics. I am really outgoing, love travelling and meeting new people. At home, we have my wife – who is the most beautiful girl in the world – who enjoys her job and love the people she is around. While I have my coaching career, she has her own career in human resources – and she is very good at what she does. So for her to come over would be a major decision. Then my son is entering college so his school environment is very important to us.

For us, it wouldn’t be a pack-your-bags-and-leave decision. There are a lot of things to consider.

Les Tan, redhoops.com: Why did Hong Wei Jian get the Slingers’ Most Improved Player* award?
Arsego: At the start of the season, he was part of our starting five. Midway through the season, we wanted to give other players an opportunity to show their mental toughest or skills and some did have their moments. But eventually, Wei Jian became the most consistent.

He had the ability to come in and make something happened – whether it was good all the time is debatable, but he always came in with a lot of energy and a lot of confidence. Generally, I would say, good things happened when he came on. From that point of view of being able to play at a consistent level, he showed me that he was developing himself into a player that could be relied on.

Wei Jian has an inner confidence – something inside him that sets him apart from the other boys. If that was to come out and spread throughout the group, that would help the group further along. His improvement was also able to be shown during the ABL competition and that made him a worthy candidate.

Les Tan, redhoops.com: How about Marcus Ng? Why did he deserve the Best Defensive Player* award?
Arsego: He was a guy that was regularly expected to match up with one of the imports from the other team. I think his competitive nature and his defensive fundamentals warrant him as our best defensive player.

People think that imports that are brought in are expected to have 20 points every game, but Marcus brought another dimension to the group that helped us immensely. Going to every game knowing that you have to defend the best player – it requires a mental toughness and characteristic about you.

There’s no question that throughout the season if Marcus had not done certain things, games would not have went the ways we wanted to.

Les Tan, redhoops.com: How about Jeffers? An automatic choice for Most Valuable Player*?
Arsego: When people think MVP, they automatically go to the stats, the numbers, and what happen on the court. But with Kyle, he could give us the numbers consistently, and also contributed to the team in other ways. He would only be second to Jason Dixon in relation to what Jason did for the Patriots. It was about where the team went with having him as our center.

There was a lot that Kyle did behind the scene that was really important for the club. Most importantly, it was what he did on the court but not only that, his work ethics, being role model for the local boys and an ambassador for the Slingers to the schools and community, made him a really worthy choice.

Les Tan, redhoops.com: What are the Slingers doing for youth development?
Arsego: I think there are some preliminary plans in the works, but I am not too sure about that. If someone gave me six youth players as part of Slingers’ academy, I would definitely spend time with them. In a roundabout way, I sort of did.

With the Basketball Association of Singapore (BAS), I spend time with the U-17 boys and some lads that might be playing in the YOG (Youth Olympic Games) and realistically, they are potentially future Slingers. So it wasn’t exactly a Slingers academy, but just spending some time with the boys which could move into something more structural – something where time is set aside for professional coaches giving guidance or whatever is need. I like to think something like this is being done behind the scene and maybe during the off season.

Les Tan, redhoops.com: How would you compare Singapore with other ASEAN countries?
Arsego: Everyone who is in sports knows that it is a work in progress in Singapore. Form a cultural perspective, sport is not a high priority. It is there, as a means for people to have recreational activity, but the actually ability to drive athletes to an elite level and take them forward is only just starting to come around. The Singapore Sports Council and people that work at that level of the sport are keen to introduce sports as part of the culture.

It just needs to find some great souls that want to make a commitment to sports. Having a structure like the ABL definitely helps.

Although there are full-time jobs for coaches, but it is just a job. What they need to do is to ask, “Can I take a person that is in this school and move him through to the possible pathway of the national U-17 and then the national team and then the Slingers? Can I do that? Do I have the time, the knowledge, the skills to move certain players to that level? Or is my agenda just to be successful for a year then find other good players for the school?”

I don’t blame coaches if they think like that, but if you want athletes to be prepared to play professionally, it has to be more than that. Whether it be through the BAS creating training centres, or the Singapore Sports Council creating an institute where basketball is a chosen sport where an athlete can study the sport full time – whichever would be fantastic.

I am a bit disappointed that basketball isn’t one of the sports in the Singapore Sports School because there are boys that can really benefit from that kind of environment. © Red Sports

*The awards are awards given out by the Slingers management. They are not ABL awards.

After five months and 53 games of the maiden ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) season, the league is clearly still imperfect in many ways, but in the end, what mattered most was that ASEAN basketballers proved to be a delight to watch.

Many ASEAN basketball fans have grown up living and breathing the NBA (National Basketball Association) but not many would know that the NBA’s success did not happen overnight and in fact the world’s most popular basketball league was bereft of attention in its first decade.

Yet through the NBA came the invention of the 24-second shot clock that not only breathed life into the league, it revolutionised the entire game altogether. So it is with ABL, it may be uncertain now what changes this league could bring but the signs are already promising.

“Through this ABL, my local players have improved a lot,” said KL Dragons head coach Goh Cheng Huat. “In fact all the local players from Indonesia and Singapore have stepped up. The way I look at it, some of them have caught up with the standard of the Filipino imports.”

Unbeknownst to many, unlike the imports, most local cagers face the challenge of juggling this professional basketball gig and their long-term marketplace career. Currently amongst the local cagers, there are teachers, engineers, undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Brunei Barracudas’ top local player, 25-year-old Esmond Tan, who is an engineer with Shell, said: “Coach Ramos has tried to adjust the trainings for me in the morning and in the evening when I can join the team for trainings. I’m proud of the local players, I kept telling my local players to be ready and we will get the chance to play. We have been improving.”

Filipino coach Bong Ramos, who has extensive coaching experience across ASEAN (in Philippines, Indonesia and now Brunei), echoed coach Goh’s sentiments, he said: “Filipinos have the advantage against any of the ASEAN locals but, because of ABL I think the locals of all Southeast Asian nations will improve because this is a good league for the locals.”

“Except the Filipinos, ABL is the first professional stint for many locals,” coach Ramos added, “but to narrow the gap [between Philippines and the rest of ASEAN] is not only this league, it’s also the training and having a college league like Philippines’ NCAA/UAAP is important.”

A key indicator of the league’s maiden success was how it has managed to attract the top ASEAN coaches. Besides coach Ramos and coach Goh, who are both highly regarded in Philippines and Malaysia respectively, the coaches of the finalists – Fictor Roring of Satria Muda and Louie Alas of Philippine Patriots – are both household names as well.

Coach Alas gave a tongue-in-cheek sharing on why he joined the ABL, he said: “I was coaching Toyota Altis in the Philippine Basketball League while Mikee (Patriots owner) is the owner of Harbour Centre. We fought them twice in the PBL Championship and we lost both times. That’s why when Mikee called me to coach the Patriots, I agreed right away because there is a saying, ‘If you can’t beat them, you join them!’”

Patriots went on to assert their dominance in the league to lift the inaugural title with a 5-0 playoff run, sweeping the KL Dragons 2-0 in the semi-finals and Satria Muda 3-0 in the finals. During the regular season, Patriots beat every team in head-to-head match-ups except the Slingers, which was the only team with a non-ASEAN marshal.

Slingers’ head coach Frank Arsego, who has announced he will not be returning next season so as to spend more time with his family in Canberra, gave his two cents on how local players can be successful through the ABL.

“Listen to your coaches, learn from your coaches, try to be in an environment where you can learn your skills in competition. The players who make it, are the ones who do the extra work outside of their normal environment, they are the ones who go on to be successful,” he said.

To raise their game, the Australian coach shared how the local players have to work extremely hard to be corrected in their techniques and be grounded in high quality fundamentals to execute them under pressure.

Coach Frank shared: “We work very hard during practice to stimulate an environment where there is a lot of pressure where their decision-making under pressure will improve as they go along, and that’s what the good players can do. We’ve got local guys in Slingers, who just through their work ethics have deserved the opportunity to be with the Slingers and because of that, they are going to become better basketballers.”

While many did step up for their teams over the season, Jan has picked the top two locals who have been a surprise ‘spark’ for their team in the 09/10 ABL season and the six local young guns to look out for in the next season. Enjoy!

ABL 09/10 Top Local ‘Spark’ (Playoff and Finals): Rony Gunawan (Satria Muda)

Rony Gunawan was the local name that stood out in the ABL finals between Satria Muda and the Philippine Patriots. While the four American imports were engrossed in a battle of attrition, the Indonesian center completely outclassed the other locals in the finals.

With both Hartman and Miller pinned down by the Patriots’ tough defense, Rony rose from the rubble to finish the game one with 10 points, eight rebounds (55.6% shooting percentage), the second game with 15 points, seven rebounds (58.3% shooting percentage), and top-scored in the final game with 20 points, seven rebounds (72.7% shooting percentage).

Rony’s finals performance epitomised how it is possible for locals to shine and make a statement for themselves amidst the import-driven league.

“Coach gave me a lot minutes to play so I just played and gave my all,” said Rony reflecting on his stunning finals showing that had breathed hope into his team. “I trusted myself and my team mates, and I’ve got nothing to lose because the pressure was not on my team.”

“I think the skills of the local players are not so far from the imports,” said Rony who also shared he looks up to NBA’s Tim Duncan. “Maybe we lose out in size and the strength, but actually we can compete with the imports if we trust ourselves and not fear them.”

“Local players can do more!” said Rony on a concluding note. “They mostly face the problem of confidence and are a bit afraid to play when there is hard, body contact with the imports. But I think the more often they play in this league, they will get used to that, and get better.”

ABL 09/10 Top Local ‘Spark’ (Regular Season): Attaporn Lertmalaiporn (Thailand Tigers)

If numbers do not lie, then without a doubt, Bangkok-born Attaporn Lertmalaiporn is not only Thailand’s best kept secret, his 223 points (14.9 points per game) score card meant that he was the top-scoring local player and not at all inferior to an American import.

Besides being a menacing scoring machine, the left-handed Attaporn was also a natural entertainer with his unorthodox style of play.

“I feel that the way I play has to do with my personality,” said Attaporn who is also pursuing a Masters degree in Physical Education in Thailand concurrently. “I’m a fun-loving person and I feel that my style of basketball has to be enjoyable and entertaining to the spectators.”

“I’ve been playing basketball for 12 years but this is my first time playing in a professional league,” added the 1.93m tall Attaporn. “I’m very grateful for the opportunity. I’ve learnt a lot from the imports and I feel that having them around, my game has improved a lot.”

And finally, the top local young gun of each team to look out for in the next season:

Brunei Barracudas: Esmond Tan

KL Dragons: Loh Shee Fai

Nonoy Baclao (Philippine Patriots)

Christian Ronaldo Sitepu (Satria Muda)

Hong Wei Jian (Singapore Slingers)

Ratdech Kruatiwa (Thailand Tigers)

Editor’s Note: This has been a maiden season of surprises and here’s a shout of thanks to Leslie and Dawn for the opportunity to cover this league; the REDcrew for working so hard under my Cruella-complex; the ABL coaches who taught me heaps about the game; the ABL players for tolerating my endless questions; and the readers for your love-hate relationship with my stories. Enjoy the other stories coming up, til we next “meet”. (jan@redhoops.com)

Kuhan Foo, the chief executive officer of the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL), has revealed that the league will know by April the status of new teams coming on board for the 2010/11 season. He also pointed out that for the existing teams to survive, teams will need to learn to market themselves well.

“The challenge I think is getting teams to market themselves and finding the major support, sponsors, pulling in more crowd and creating a basketball culture,” shared Kuhan at the post-finals press conference.

“We know it is possible,” Kuhan added, “if we look at KL Dragons for example in Malaysia where the crowd is usually Chinese and men, but now their crowd has 40% Malays, 30% women because of the ABL.”

Four of the six ABL teams in the inaugural season are new teams set up in conjunction with the inception of the ABL. Only Indonesia’s Satria Muda BritAma and the Singapore Slingers are existing professional teams with the experience of engaging the community.

It has indeed proven to be a challenge for the new teams to fill the stadiums on game day. Thailand Tigers and Philippine Patriots gave free entry to their home games in a bid to draw in the crowds and drum up the support in their first season.

While the Thailand Tigers, who finished at the bottom of the table in the inaugural season, struggled to bring in the home crowd all season, the Patriots crowd picked up significantly towards the playoffs and finals.

The KL Dragons, singled out by Kuhan as the role model for having done an exceptional job in expanding and diversifying their fan base in their maiden season, credited their fans and media partners for their success.

“I don’t think other teams can do so because they don’t have Malaysian blood in them!” the KL Dragons owners said jokingly when asked how they managed to pack their stadium to the point of having to turn away spectators.

Turning serious, they continued: “I think to be fair, this game, except for Philippines, is quite new to other countries, including Malaysia. I think if you look at any leagues when they have just started, even the NBA, the English Premier League, the crowds were not there either.”

“It takes time to develop these things,” they added. “Give it time to slowly grow, it’s about creating the awareness. It has a lot to do with our media partners as well, we need to say a big thank you to them.”

Besides a massive revamp of their dynamic website mid-season and heavy utilisation of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, the Kuala Lumpur-based team also organised road trips for their fans to Singapore for their away games.

Indonesia’s Satria Muda is the only other team that had fans travel to an away game. Satria Muda, who have the most number of fans of all the ABL teams, have been actively building their fan base since the team joined the Indonesian Basketball League in 2003. Satria Muda have won four domestic titles since, plus the SEABA Champions Cup in 2008.

Philippine Patriots owner, Mikee Romero, who also owns the Philippine Basketball League (PBL) team, Harbour Center, the team that Satria Muda beat in the 2008 SEABA Champions Cup final, said after the ABL finals: “When we (Harbour Center) played against Satria Muda two years ago, it was a very different team. The level of Indonesian basketball has become higher.”

While the team’s success and progress will be a crowd puller, according to Kuhan, what is essentially more important is the building of a basketball culture, or a culture of identifying ABL as ASEAN’s pride.

While the Philippines have built an unrivaled basketball culture, elsewhere in ASEAN, Malaysians and Indonesians would not find local sporting pride unfamiliar too, with their history of having homegrown athletes claiming top honours at international competitions such as the Olympics.

But for the rest of ASEAN, building a strong fan base that would attract sponsors and support to ensure the sustainability and survivability of the team does seem like a mountain-moving task. The teams taking ownership of the ABL dream is the instrumental first step.

“This finals is the fruit of the ABL dream,” shared Mikee Romero at the post-finals press conference in Jakarta. “It is a common dream of Tony Fernandes and his friends (who became the owners of the six teams). There are a lot of people backing this.”

“And one day, we will grow into Asia and this league will become a big, big league,” Romero continued in zest, “and maybe even rival the NBA (National Basketball Association) or CBL (China Basketball League). Watch out for this league.”

Friday, February 19, 2010 – The Singapore Slingers head coach Frank Arsego has decided not to return for the second season of the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) later this year.

Coach Arsego led the Slingers to a 10-5 win-loss record during the regular season before bowing out with his team 1-2 in the playoffs against Satria Muda BritAma.

Having been in Singapore since 2008, going home to family in Australia is now his main priority.

“The reason for heading back to Australia is family,” Arsego told Red Hoops. “I’ve been here for two years and my family stayed home in Australia. I need to get back to connect with the family. I want to spend more time with my son and not miss out too much.”

Coach Arsego took the Slinger players aside last night to break the news to them personally.

“It’s not an easy thing to give up what you’ve started and have had some success with. The two things I’m proud of is that I’ve left a good team and helped to create a lot more interest in Singapore for basketball.”

Slinger general manager Michael Johnson understood where Arsego was coming from.

“I would have liked for him to have stayed 12-18 months but it’s a family decision. It’s not one of those situation where we had a bad season and the coach has to go. We had a great season!” said Johnson.

Johnson added that Arsego told him of the decision after the playoffs and that the Slingers will decide on a new head coach closer to the start of the second ABL season.

For assistant coach Neo Beng Siang, the experience of working alongside Arsego had been a good one.

“I’m pretty happy working with him because he’s a nice coach who has taught me a lot of stuff, sharing with me his 35 years of coaching experience, giving me articles from coaching clinics he’s attended to read,” said Neo.

“The players and I were sad to hear that he was going because we expected him to be staying another one or two years because we had a good season where everybody jelled together,” added Neo.

“I felt quite sad when I was told about the news, as I have been working with him since the last season when I am still a development player,” said local Slinger Steven Khoo. “I learnt a lot of basketball skills and also life skills from him. He is always a very nice coach and friend to me. He is always the first person I would approach and talk to when I am in doubts.

“But this is part and parcel of life, people come and go, so I wish him all the best,” added Khoo.

“I enjoyed the time working in this program with him,” said Wong Wei Long. “He has had an impact on my basketball career. It is our loss that we could not keep him as our coach for the next ABL season.”

In other team news, Slinger Kyle Jeffers will play for his old club Langen of Germany in the ABL off-season and he expressed a strong desire to return for a second season with the Slingers.

Jeffers was named Most Valuable Player by the Slinger management while Hong Weijian got the Most Improved Player.

Marcus Ng, who got the Best Defensive Player accolade, will be returning to Australia to resume his medical studies while Michael LeBlanc and Al Vergara have no definite plans at the moment.

The local Slinger boys will in the meantime spend the off-season conducting basketball clinics for Singapore schools before resuming training some time later.

As it has become my routine, I was reading the various articles and comment threads on Red Hoops this morning.

In one of the Red Hoops threads from the third game of the Slinger-Satria Muda semi-final series, there was a comment from “Andrew” that Kyle Jeffers cannot win a championship if he continues to play with the weak Singapore locals.

A follow on remark from “mart” acknowledged that Hong Weijian played a good Game 3, and that this was a positive sign for the Slingers, and then wondered what happened to Wong Wei Long, whom he feels disappeared as the season progressed.

This being a topic close to my heart, I could not help but jump in.

The Singapore local basketball scene has many issues to overcome. Being involved in the scene in one capacity or another for over the past 20 years, I have enough opinions to write a book but I’ll just rattle off a few comments pertinent to the issue of “weak” local players.

Firstly, Singapore society, up to the last few years, has not been conducive for sports excellence. Only a very select few have been successful in making a career from sports. Even if sporting excellence is attained, an even smaller group out of these elite athletes manages to reap financial success from sports.

Suffice to say, most parents would rather see their children focus on academic pursuit, and beyond their school years, channel their energy and talents into the corporate world, or in the civil service, rather than excel on the sporting field.

Things have changed, and now, as a society we are working on this. Sports as a career, is becoming more viable, with successful individuals enjoying good income and higher standards of living for themselves and their families.

Basketball, however, is still lagging behind other sports, in this aspect. Outside of a small group of full-time coaches, Basketball as a career, in Singapore, is still in its infancy.

We have many players who stop playing the game at a high level after they leave school. Even the most passionate, who continue to play competitively, cannot sustain the required commitment levels, once they start working. Inevitably, they drop out. So, the high performance talent pool for seniors is small.

Our boys do not have enough opportunity to play at a higher level. Before the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL), they only played local competitions. The Australian National Basketball League (NBL) did not count. The two or three Singapore boys selected had very limited playing minutes. The main benefit was the exposure from the coaching and the professional setup for training and conditioning.

The local Singapore clubs mostly do not groom talent, but poach and loan from each other to play in tournaments. This means that at the various tournaments, the same small pool of better players at their peak, play each other, and collectively “bully” the teams fielding lower-level players, or aging high performance players. There is no improvement if you are not playing against higher level players on a consistent basis.

Probably the only club with a decent training regime and program is Home United. Then again, many have felt that their ability to sustain such a program is due to the fact that they are the team sustained by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in Singapore, that you can draw a salary for your day job and still get credited for time spent on basketball.

There has been a limited opportunity for these high-performance players to play regional opponents. Depending on the bosses associated with the local clubs who are sponsoring the teams, there is some ad-hoc participation in competitions in the region.

From my recollection, the Singapore teams have not had any noteworthy performances at these competitions. This is probably because the entire selection, training, competing process is so haphazard.

Incidentally, there is almost zero media coverage on such events and no vehicle for following the teams’ progress in our English press.

Off and on, the most organized senior team is probably our National team. The clubs feed the national team, and players gather for centralized training, with varying intensity levels depending on the next project they are preparing for.

However, the Basketball Association of Singapore has not sent the National team to the last few South East Asian (SEA) Games. This has been a source of much frustration for me. The SEA Games is the lowest level regional competition for our basketballers. It is also probably the least expensive competition to participate in, in terms or travel and management costs. If we do not send our National team to this competition, why bother having a National team at all?

So thanks to the gods and higher powers that we now have the Slingers. If you are talented enough, you can play basketball and get paid doing it. This means that if you are good enough, and if you put in the effort, you can now play high-level ball for more years, you can learn from professional and well-run organizations about skill development, tactics, and conditioning. Then when you are through playing, maybe you can get a basketball-related career extension in technical operations or coaching.

That’s why I make it a point to buy my own ticket, despite opportunities to get complimentary ones and be in the various corporate boxes. I want the franchise to be successful and profitable so that they will stay with us for a long time, and help us build our platform for our local talent.

My gratitude also to the franchise and to coach Frank Arsego for not filling up their full quota of imports, thereby allowing a local to be the 5th man, and forcing the locals to play a bigger role off the bench.

We have rotated several Singaporeans in this starting spot over the season. Hong WeiJian, Desmond Oh, Michael Wong have all been given opportunities and probably Weijian has blossomed the most.

Wong Wei Long had some good games, when he surprised opponents with his shooting and he played good perimeter pressure defense. But he is still young, and he is not yet matured and experienced enough to hold down the point guard job. Arguably, it is easier to be young and inexperienced and energetic at the shooting guard spot.

Then we have the other youngsters like Steven Khoo, Lim Wai Sian and Prasad Sadasivan who are not really skillful enough and definitely not big enough at this level to be effective as forwards (Prasad is listed as a guard).

I am sure that they train hard, and the exposure and training is helping them, but I do not see them contributing significantly and consistently at this level. That’s why I was very happy for Steven Khoo that he had his moment of glory when he was called to fill in for the starters in the key minutes of one of the regular season games, and he made some big plays (against the Patriots).

Our young ball players have better opportunities today than any of their predecessors in years past. There will be more players graduating from the school scene, including a promising 15-year-old, Delvin Goh, who is already over 1.9m and is being used as a centre for his school, Unity Secondary, but plays naturally like a power forward. Delvin is already being groomed in the national squad.

I hope the Slingers stay successful and stay with us long enough, so that these green shoots bear fruit. It wouldn’t hurt too if our national sports association did some serious self-evaluation as to what their long-term purpose and 5-year plan is.

As my old school motto preaches, there is hope for a better future.

With less than 24 hours to the tip off of the inaugural ASEAN Basketball League Finals series between the Philippine Patriots and Satria Muda in Manila, the visitors are not as concerned about playing away from home than they are about playing without heart.

With all the hype surrounding home court advantage, many often forget that the away disadvantage can be minimised and turned into an advantage, just as Satria Muda did in Singapore when an unusually confident Alex Hartman sparked his team off to unleash a braveheart performance.

“I was feeling confident in the first half. I just felt that we need to send a message,” said Hartman whose energy was infectious. “We need to play like we did in Jakarta. If we did right from the jump they would either fall or it would be a close game and it was a close game.”

Like a true Leo, Hartman’s lion heart and appetite was evident in Singapore where he nailed 30 points, including four treys from eight attempts.

The 24-year-old said: “We weren’t confident the last two times we played here (Singapore), we didn’t have a good shooting night, I didn’t have a good shooting night, Nakiea got emotionally out of the last game, we had a lot of turnovers, we just didn’t play team basketball. We went back to Jakarta and I think that was a total boost in everyone’s game and we thought if we play like that we could beat Slingers in Singapore.”

“I’m just happy that in the first half I could do my job and in the second half, Nakiea could do his,” continued Hartman, who had 21 points to his name by the half-time buzzer while fellow import Nakiea Miller managed only two.

Hartman, together with Amin Prihantono, the team’s captain in the domestic league, contributed to the bulk of the scoring before another local-import duo of Miller and ‘Super’ Mario Wuysang stepped up in the second half. Rony Gunawan also made his presence felt in the second half and was formidable in his defense in the crucial final period.

“We really focused on our defence coming into the series,” Wuysang let out. “We didn’t do good in Game 1, but really tightened up in Game 2 and in this last game, so we really focused on our defence.”

Hartman added: “At the beginning we didn’t play that good in defense, we turned it around but the thing is we had other people stepping up. We had Amin stepped up big time in the first half, Mario stepped up in the second half and had a solid game. We just had a lot of people who played with confidence.”

Both Hartman and Wuysang acknowledged that the army of Satria Muda’s fans, who have traveled to Singapore for the game, fueled the team’s display, minimising the away disadvantage.

When asked about the vociferous support from their fans, Wuysang said: “We were surprised about the Indonesian supporters today. We weren’t ready for that. We didn’t expect that. It was good to see it, and it really helped us.”

“The fans were amazing, I felt like Jakarta really came out to support us, we knew they were coming out to support us,” Hartman chipped in. “When you know a lot of people are backing you, you try a little harder and that’s why a lot of people were stepping up and were more confident because a lot of people were backing them up.”

Wuysang further added: “It’s so tough to win here (Singapore). We got beat pretty bad in the first game. And there was a little bit of online trash talking, so we took it kind of personal. It made it a little more personal to us. It definitely was a motivation, and it’s just amazing we could win here.”

Satria Muda’s head coach Fictor Roring also praised Wuysang and Miller’s outstanding contribution in the last quarter and gave special credit to the locals for stepping up when Nakiea Miller lost his cool in the first half after being hurt by Slinger Al Vergara.

“This is what I call team work, the others stepping up so that Nakiea could calm down. When the imports are not well, the locals have to step up and play,” the Indonesian coach shared.

“The Slingers is a great team, they have a great coach who did a great job with them but experience made the difference,” Roring said. “My team is used to this kind of situation, being down in the first game in the series and coming back to win the series just like we did in our IBL (Indonesia Basketball League) last year. It was exactly the same situation.”

“In terms of imports, I think Nakiea and Alex are at the same level with Jeffers and LeBlanc. In this kind of (playoff) situations, the tactics, the strategies are not so important. What is important is playing with the heart,” coach Roring added.

Reinforcing these sentiments, Hartman said: “It was tight going into the fourth quarter and when that happens, the last 10 minutes aren’t about the players, the coaching, it’s about who has the best heart, the most heart, who can get through to the hoops and make the free throws.”

Coach Roring would know best. The Indonesian coach had led Satria Muda to a famous victory over Philippine’s Harbour Center at the 2008 SEABA Champions Club final, ending Philippine’s 10-year domination in the regional club competition.

“So we have a big chance against Patriots though we lost to them three times in the regular season but, in this kind of (finals) situation, it is the heart. Just as when we lost the home court advantage to Slingers we know it will be difficult and we lost by a big margin in the first game but, this is the playoffs, it’s different,” reiterated coach Roring.

Satria Muda have walked the talk in their semi-final playoff series against a Slingers team who had the second best home record during the regular season (6-2). While the Patriots may have fumbled twice in Singapore, no team has yet to beat them at home, but Satria Muda will be playing their hearts out in Manila to show that with that, home advantage is nothing.

This mouth-watering ABL finals series will take place at Manila’s Ynares Sports Arena at 6pm (UTC/GMT +8) tomorrow. Entrance is free.

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Satria Muda shoot down Slingers at home to make ABL finals

With the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) finals days away, Red Hoops reader Jonathan Chuongco gives his review of those who have stood out for him during the regular ABL season.

Best Player of the Regular Season: Nakiea Miller

Brought in to replace the ineffective Theophilus Little, Satria Muda have chosen the right guy. Not only can Miller score, but he can crash the boards as well, averaging a monstrous 20.7 points a game and 16.4 boards. Where Miller goes, Satria Muda go as well.

Most surprising win of the Regular Season: Thailand Tigers at Singapore Slingers (Dec 7)

The win was surprising because the Slingers were leading the ABL standings at the time, while the Tigers were anchored at the bottom. The Slingers actually held the lead at the end of the first quarter but things turned around during the second and the Tigers never looked back, getting the most surprising win of the ABL season.

Best Comeback of the Regular Season: KL Dragons

Hats off to the KL Dragons for not giving up and winning three straight crucial games against the Philippine Patriots, Singapore Slingers and Satria Muda BritAma, the top three teams in the ABL. Because of that, lady luck rewarded the Dragons, and they took the final playoff spot at the expense of the Brunei Barracudas.

Best Defensive Team of the Regular Season: Philippine Patriots

The Patriots held their opponents to 68.2 PPG (points per game) and held opponents to 37.6% shooting and 28.7% 3-point shooting to rank 1st, 1st and 2nd respectively in the three categories. It is a no-brainer that the best defensive team award should be given to the Patriots for it is a big reason why they led the ABL in the regular season.

Best Offensive Team/s of the Regular Season: Singapore Slingers and Brunei Barracudas

These two teams are very efficient at scoring. The Brunei Barracudas led the league in terms of scoring production with 78.9 PPG compared to the 75.5 PPG of the Slingers, but the Slingers shot slightly better than the ‘Cudas with 43.5% to 42.4%.

Only these two teams shot better than 40% for the season, and since their offensive production are very similar, both teams deserve to be given the best offensive team awards.

Best Crowd Support: KL Dragons fans

They were rowdy, loud and proud and filled the MABA Stadium when the Dragons played. No questions asked, the Dragons fans are the best in the ABL right now in terms of supporting the home team.

Editor’s Note: Have an entirely different opinion? If you would also like to share your review with the other Red Hoops readers, send your story to jan@redhoops.com

Singapore Indoor Stadium, Sunday, February 7, 2010 – The Singapore Slingers suffered a heartbreaking 76-86 home loss in the decisive third game of the inaugural ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) semi-final series against Indonesian club Satria Muda BritAma to bow out of the championship.

Satria Muda’s foreign imports Alexander Hartman and Nakiea Miller both starred for their team with 30 points and 22 points respectively to send their vocal contingent of supporters into basketball ecstasy in qualifying for the finals.

With the win, the Indonesian club champions go on to meet ABL favourites Philippines Patriots in a best-of-five games series starting in Manila next week.

Satria Muda had displayed early in the game they were not about to fold quietly when they jumped to an early 5-0 lead.

But the Slingers showed resilience in bouncing back from the early deficit, with Marcus Ng scoring a long three-pointer at the first-quarter buzzer for a 22-19 lead.

Tempers boiled over in the second quarter as Slingers point guard Al Vergara was whistled for a flagrant foul against Miller. Not one to take matters lying down, Miller confronted Vergara and earned a technical foul as a result.

The turning point in the second quarter was Slinger forward Michael LeBlanc picking up his third personal foul. Satria’s Hartman took full advantage of LeBlanc’s subsequent absence to down 12 of his 21 points in the quarter to spark his team to a 47-42 half-time lead.

The Slingers came out firing after the break though and went on a 16-3 run for their largest lead of the game at 58-50. A worrying moment also occurred for the Indonesian bench when Miller appeared to injure his ankle after illegally charging into a stationary LeBlanc.

But Miller returned soon after into action and showed a deft touch with an unlikely three-pointer to haul his team back to a 62-all tie at the end of the third quarter, setting the stage for an explosive fourth and final quarter.

Riding on their momentum, Satria Muda took advantage of a fast tiring Slinger team to steadily increase their lead. A desperate full court defensive pressure in the last few minutes by the home team failed to reduce the deficit as both Slinger starters Al Vergara and Kyle Jeffers exited the game.

Hartman then executed an emphatic dunk off a fast break move in the final seconds to seal the Slingers’ fate.

Frank Arsego, head coach of the Singapore Slingers tried to make sense of his team’s loss.

“We just could not keep up the intensity (in the final quarter) and had too many turnovers and made poor decisions down the stretch,” he explained.

Despite the loss, there were some positives for Arsego from the Slingers’ maiden season.

“It was a great fight and a good learning experience for us. This team has lots of potential for the future and I have enjoyed working with them,” he said.

Quarter by Quarter Scores
Slingers vs Satria Muda
1st Q: 22-19
2nd Q: 20-28
3rd Q: 20-15
4th Q: 14-24

Singapore Slingers Game Box Score

Satria Muda BritAma Game Box Score

It was a mid-week ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) game tucked away in the Jakarta suburb of Kelapa Gading on a rainy evening, but Satria Muda BritAma’s “6th man” still showed up to fuel the hosts’ hunger for victory. The 74-45 score line in Jakarta had less to do with a sedated Singapore Slingers team than it was about a spirited Satria Muda.

Even the roar of thunder outside the arena was no match for the vibrant concoction of up-tempo music blended with the “6th man” unity chant of “In-do-ne-sia” and zealous fans singing their hearts out in the arena. Like a choir director, the home crowd dictated the home team’s rhythm of the game.

The visitors, on the other hand, were just out-of-tune and were caught travelling far too many times, disrupting the flow of their usual game. The Slingers were not so much out-played than they were out-spirited by the hosts, a replay of their last visit to Jakarta in December.

“This venue hasn’t been too kind to us this season and it has just come back to haunt us really,” Slingers head coach Frank Arsego said of their Jakarta hoodoo. “Full credit to them, they had the energy level. I thought we started the game ok but for whatever reason we just couldn’t sustain it.”

It was not what the “6th man” did to the visitors but what they did for the hosts that debilitated the visitors’ ego because any taunts hurled onto the court were either lost in translation or deeply buried in the non-stop music. It is superficial to see the “6th man” effect as brash hostility towards the visiting team when in reality it is about creating an uplifting atmosphere that fires up the home team.

“Their zone defense sort of stuffed us up a bit,” admitted coach Arsego. “We had a zone attack that worked really well for us back home and we’ll have that on Sunday but for whatever reason we just didn’t have that kind of assertiveness here, we just didn’t have the confidence. People who had the open shots, didn’t take it and I don’t know what brought the mindset – we are going to fix that.”

The game appeared to be over by the end of the third period with the Slingers at just 35 points and without a response to the hosts’ 21-point lead. Both teams then released an all-local line-up in the second half of the final period where the Singaporeans kept their cool and outscored the Indonesians 7-2.

And that became the silver-lining in the stormy night. Coach Arsego said: “I thought a couple of local boys really dug in, like [Hong} Wei Jian played really hard and Desmond [Oh] came on quite strong at the end for us, which is really good and showed we don’t just allow teams to dominate us right to the end.”

“The best thing for us is that we have been rewarded for five months of great work and by finishing second we have the home-court advantage and if we can maximise it on Sunday like they did here, we would have fulfilled one of our goals,” concluded the Australian coach.

Satria Muda’s head coach Fictor Roring was pleased that his team lived up to their semangat (Bahasa Indonesian for ‘spirit’) reputation.

“As you can see, there is a big difference in the spirit and the enthusiasm in my players. My players wanted to win. We want to go to the finals, we want to play in our gym again,” he said.

“We were ok in the first half [last Sunday] but in the second half, we lost our aggressiveness because the Slingers pressed us offensively and defensively and they were more enthusiastic and aggressive, [while] my local players’ aggressiveness was just not there,” added coach Roring on last Sunday’s loss.

Unlike the first playoff game in Singapore, where Satria Muda’s American duo of Alex Hartman and Nakiea Miller shouldered the scoring load, local boy Welyanson Situmorang stepped up in the second game, scoring 12 points and registering a 100% shooting record (FG and FT) in his 11:23 minutes on court. Situmorang scored eight points in the final period when the two imports were rested.

Coach Roring said: “We studied Sunday’s game closely to see who could control this game from the beginning. Our defense stopped Jeffers – he scored only five points! Jeffers and LeBlanc are Slingers’ key players. We thought about how to stop them because if we stop the two of them, we’ve won half the battle.”

Satria Muda had to make a prompt tactical change after losing key defender Christian Sitepu to an anterior-cruciate ligament (ACL) injury picked up in Singapore which has laid him off for the rest of the season.

Sitepu was forced to retire after just 8:03 minutes of play in Singapore and coach Roring believed that the sudden loss of Sitepu, who was tasked to guard Marcus Ng, affected his plans and rotation.

Slingers’ ASEAN import Marcus Ng did a phenomenal job in defending Alex Hartman in Singapore and was again a source of frustration for the American in his own backyard. Hartman shot 29% in Singapore on Sunday and managed 38% in Jakarta, but these statistics do not do justice to the level of positive energy and exuberance Hartman brought to his team, especially in the second game.

“Satria Muda were more comfortable playing at home and they played better,” shared Marcus Ng. “We weren’t quite on the ball from the start of the game. From there we dug ourselves a hole and couldn’t get out of it, something just wasn’t right, like we are tired and our legs are gone. It was a tough game, Kyle has a tough job inside, he had to get to the board for us and do his job on Miller. Usually there are a couple of us who can help him out but tonight we couldn’t find a way.”

The game’s top scorer, Nakiea Miller, had silenced both his critics and Slingers’ Kyle Jeffers.

On shutting Jeffers down, Miller let out a cheeky grin and said: “We did a good job in not letting Jeffers get to the basket and I did a good job one-on-one with him. Slingers like to put LeBlanc in the middle and not really play defense on anybody. We are going to work on that, get our shooters on the board and once we make a couple of shots early then I can go one-on-one with Jeffers.”

“It’s my job the next few days to get my guys ready, especially in their defense and their confidence,” continued Miller. “Its game three from tomorrow on and this Sunday we are going to do what we did here. We got going from the jump and we were tough on our defense, we wanted [the win] more than we did last Sunday. So we need to want it more than they (the Slingers) do on Sunday.”

For such an insatiable appetite, coach Roring believes the key is in bringing the Satria Muda spirit to Singapore, he concluded.

“We have won on the road in Malaysia and Thailand so I don’t think we have a problem in our away games. But my players will have to bring this spirit, aggression and enthusiasm to Singapore on Sunday because the Slingers will be really confident playing at home.”