JUST days after Rain or Shine's PBA season ended at the hands of TNT in Game Six of their Philippine Cup semifinal series, Yeng Guiao was back on the court talking to a group of players at the end of practice.
"Junthy [Valenzuela] has been watching our games lately and he mentioned he needed help and advice," said the veteran coach when asked about his presence in practice of the rejigged Cebu Greats team in the MPBL.
READ Cebu connection galvanizes long-suffering MPBL team, says Junthy
"Just to show support to coach Junthy and all my former players in the Cebu team who heeded the call to reperesent the true character of cebuano basketball," Guiao added.
Junthy, of course, is a former player of Guiao at Red Bull who was among the coaches and players who answered the call to help Cebu after the MPBL team struggled under its former ownership due to financial issues and mismanagement.
Valenzuela is not the only former Guiao player in the new Cebu lineup; also there was JR Quinahan, who played for Guiao at Rain or Shine and NLEX, and Mac Tallo, who he brought to NLEX during his time with the Road Warriors.
"Kudos to the new management who took on the burden and responsibility to give the Cebuano fans what they deserve," he said.
Guiao's kinship with Cebuano players extend well beyond Valenzuela and Quinahan. He rattled off the names of Cebuanos who played under him, among them Al Solis, Boy Cabahug , Jimwell Torion, Zaldy Realubit, Mac Tallo, Calvin Oftana, Reed Juntilla and Warren Iban̈ez, and lately Santi Santillan and Kris Porter.
"Cebuanos have always been proud of their basketball tradition and love for the game probably as much as we Kapampangans do," Guiao said. "So their fans deserve the best representation they can have."
Already, the Cebu Greats have shown signs of life just two days after that Guiao with a win over Imus that ended a seven-game slide. But Guiao was also the first to remind Junthy and Co. that they need to do more to keep this resurgence going.
Guiao said Valenzuela can start by leaning new trends in coaching, adding the way he coached Junthy and his teammates at Red Bull decades ago is so far different to the way teams are coached these days.
"There's no magic formula I can impart to them that will instantly make them better. But they can start by just putting up their best effort in practice and try to translate that to their games," said the many-time champion coach.
"There ere new trends in playing and coaching the game and that they should start adapting to these new trends. The way I coached Junthy and my former players then is a lot different from the way I would coach them now."
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