Air 21 confident on Douthit
Thursday, 23 February 2012 00:00
FOR Air 21 coach Franz Pumaren, there's nowhere the Express can go but up, following their forgettable 0-14 win-loss record in futility in the recent Philippine Cup. "Well, siguro naman we wouldn't go 0-28 in the Commissioner's Cup because that would mean, wala na naman kaming tatalunin," Pumaren, who himself own a long victory runs in both the amateur and professional ranks, especially in the University Athletics Association of the Philippines (UAAP) while calling the shots for the La Salle Green Archers, averred during a Scoop Sa Kamayan weekly session. Pumaren, the second of three basketball coaching siblings Filomeno "Filo" Pumaren, said during the session that the acquisition of former Gilas-Pilipinas standout Marcus Douthit, which the Bert Lina franchise will be using as import in the on-going Commissioner's Cup, has solved one of the biggest problems the Express encountered in their first taste of competition after buying the Red Bull franchise of George Chua. "We really lacked the ceiling in the All-Filipino kaya mabuti naman ang ibinigay sa amin si Douthit at least in this conference," the former Quezon City councilor said, adding he also acquired three more players from the free agent market who could also fill in the vacuum that was lacking in the team. He was referring to three former Meralco stalwarts : 6-foot-6 slotman Bryan Faundo, 6-5 Marc Isip and 6-4 Bitoy Omolon.
Pumaren said the trio added to the Bolts' ceiling besides contributing, too, in scoring. "We're still small at an average 6-3 height, but I believe that's good enough than the previous conference. Nagyon, nadagdagan din ang muscle naming sa paint," he said. "One other problem we encountered in the first conference was inadequate preparation or, perhaps completely lack of it," he said. "We barely had a two-week together when the Philippine Cup started October last year." "All of the Barako Bull players when we got the team had expired contracts at wala naming expansion team na mapagkukunan," he lamented. So what happened to us in the entire conference was to get to know each other."
"But certainly, we've learned our lesson to start with Mr. Lina's three-year program to build a really competitive team," Pumaren said. "I'm sure naman na despite the futility in our campaign the last conference, we were able to gain a lot which we can carry in this conference." "Likewise, we started practicing 10 days after the first conference, kaya medyo mahabahaba an gaming preparasyon. Yun nga lang, while kami ang pinakaunang mag-ensayo pero kami rin yung kahulihulihang nagkaroon ng import," Pumaren said. PNA
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