This was the assessment of coach Junel Baculi of the Teeth Sparklers and Coy Banal of the Water Force after baring plans that they are planning to toughen up their respective squads come the season-closing conference in November.
"A lot of teams have adopted college teams so we may do that also," said Baculi, who steered the Lamoiyan franchise to the Sunkist PBL Unity Cup title, in yesterday’s weekly PSA Forum, sponsored by Agfa Films and Red Bull, at the Manila Pavilion.
"Maybe we could adopt Ateneo since we already have four of their top players to beef up our team for the next conference," he added referring to Rich Alvarez, Wesley Gonzales, Larry Fonacier and LA Tenorio.
Banal, who was named the coach of the year by the PBL Press Corps in a simple awarding rites, for his part, said they are still studying their options although his basic thrust is to get more players from his college team, Far Eastern University.
"We have no definite plans yet but I’m sure we’ll have an intact line-up next conference and add some few more from FEU," explained Banal.
Also on yesterday’s guest list were Hapee team manager Bernard Yang and players Alvarez, June Peter Simon, Joel Dualan, Christian Luanzon, Ryan Dy and Francis Mercado, Viva assistant coach Roger Flores and cagers Gerard Jones and Joel Co.
Aside from Banal, the sports scribes also awarded the co-MVP trophy to Hapee’s Simon and Alvarez for making the biggest impact in the finals.
Simon was the Teeth Sparklers’ source of strength in the team’s deciding Game 5 win over the San Miguel Corp.-owned franchise while the high-leaping Alvarez, a top prospect in next year’s PBA rookie draft, took care of things with his defense.
"I’m just happy I was chosen to be one of the MVPs," said the 22-year-old Alvarez, who is playing his last UAAP season this year before making the big move to the pro-league.