Where's the Fire?

In a much awaited game between Alaska and Rain or Shine, the Aces suffered their fourth straight loss with an embarrassing 120 – 84 defeat at the hands of the Elasto Painters. The 36 point margin just adds pressure to the Aces and raised questions from among the thousands of Aces fans, what happened?

You can see the offensive ball rotation has improved a bit but they can’t just seem to buy a basket, why?

You saw a glimpse of LA Tenorio’s shooting.

You saw Brandon Cablay finally coming out of his shell and have improved a lot with his outside sniping.

You saw Cyrus Baguio hitting those usual jumpshots.

The guards started to contribute but seems everything was not enough, why?

A nightmarish game that saw the Aces having too many airballs, too many defensive lapses, too many brick shots and too many eyesore turnovers, why?

What’s the problem?

Several times, you will see Coach Joel Banal lacking some in-game inputs with the players on the playing court. There was a time he was caught just standing and no reaction while looking at an Alaska player committing a turnover in front of him as if everything was okay.

There was a time Rain or Shine is getting those easy layups and you will see him with no reaction and no direct communication with the players just to even remind them up to get back on defense.

Where’s the fire?

You can see from the faces of the Aces that there is no intensity and no willingness as if like they haven’t fully embraced the current situation.

The coach mentality reflects on its players and with the way Coach Banal is handling this team, there is no way they can win if he will not inject the energy in the team that should be starting from him. The team needs a players’ coach that understands their feelings and emotions during the game.

The x’s and o’s is just the basic fundamentals of the game but the coach should have the right attitude and smarts on how to adjust in game situations, be it on the game strategy or firing up the mental toughness of its players.

Yes, Coach Banal is a proven coach, a veteran on this job, but you can compare him to a teacher with a very systematic approach of teaching.

A teacher that will asks you to memorize hundreds of terminologies or those that will just read his lesson from the book.

Coaching is no different in teaching, aside from the important notes that a class needs to learn, you should also know how to motivate them, energize them to build their confidence and most importantly guide them along the away so that they will not be lost or fail your expectations.

Without those things, you will not see the full effort from the class and so with the players. No fire, no gain!

Yes, everyone can coach, but not everyone can manage!

It is still very early in the conference, there’s still time!