WHEN Louie Alas took over as head coach of Phoenix Fuel Masters, the first thing he did was to bring in someone who shares the same vision in terms of basketball philosophy.
Topex Robinson, who along with Alas, worked as members of the coaching staff of Alaska headed by Alex Compton, was the first one the comebacking PBA coach had in mind when he was building his coaching staff.
“We share the same vision. We talked a lot even when we were still with Alaska,” Mr. Alas told BusinessWorld. “We’re two coaches who like to press a lot.”
As coach of the Lyceum Pirates, Mr. Robinson carried the squad to its first ever championship appearance in NCAA history on top of winning 18 games in a row. Their streak was snapped by the San Beda Red Lions in the finals.
In the PBA, Alas will implement the same coaching philosophy. He will be handling his first PBA team since he last coached the Talk ’N Text Phone Pals in 2002.
“I always want my team to play highly energized defense. No let up, pressing defense,” added Mr. Alas.
At practice, even veteran players had already embraced the system, which they believe will help them improve go over the seventh-place finish, the best the team could come up last season.
“It’s funny that even guys like Willy Wilson and Doug Kramer, they’re buying into the system,” added Mr. Alas.
The Fuel Masters had managed to make it to the playoffs, but they could not get past the quarterfinal round.
Mr. Alas said there was no pressure from the management to get immediate result of winning the championship. Instead, it wants nothing more but to see improvement.
“We wanted to improve from our last season’s finish. Yes, there’s pressure, but they just want to see improvement and not demanding for more,” added Mr. Alas. — Rey Joble
