TNT in Down Under

Talk ‘N’ Text is now barnstorming Australia on a training tour that’s geared to whip the Phone Pals into tip-top shape for the new Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) season starting Oct. 2 at the Araneta Coliseum.

The Phone Pals left Manila for Sydney last Thursday and are due back Sunday.

In their first exhibition game, Talk ‘N’ Text played the Australian Institute of Sport to a tie. Then, the Phone Pals lost to the National Basketball League (NBL) club Wollongong Hawks by 12. The Hawks were led by Cortez Groves of Kansas State and Tony Rampton of Iowa State.

Talk ‘N’ Text takes on another NBL team, the Melbourne Tigers, today and tomorrow. Incidentally, the Tigers are now coached by Al Westover who replaced the legendary Lindsey Gaze during the offseason. National Basketball Association veteran Chris Antsey anchors the middle for Melbourne.

Coach Joel Banal is back on the Phone Pals bench but from his staff the previous season, only assistant Ariel Vanguardia was rehired. Gone are Virgil Villavicencio, Aric del Rosario and Josel Angeles. Recruited to join Banal’s staff were former FedEx head coach Bong Ramos and retired pro Bong Ravena who’s an understudy assistant. Derick Pumaren was signed up as a consultant.

The lineup has undergone a major revamp with the arrival of rookies Anthony Washington and Mac-Mac Cardona and veteran free agent Leo Avenido from Coca-Cola. Washington came in from Air 21 in the Yancy de Ocampo trade while Cardona, who’s expected to play extended minutes at the two-guard spot in place of injured Willie Miller, moved in from the Express for Patrick Fran.

The new hires are all in Australia with comebacking import Damien Cantrell who averaged 29.3 points and 15.3 rebounds for the Phone Pals in the 2003 Reinforced Conference. Cantrell hit 35 points to power Talk ‘N’ Text to a 123-106 win over Sta. Lucia Realty in the playoff for third place.

At the Global Hoops Summit in Las Vegas last July, Cantrell suited up for the Long Beach Jam. He averaged 12.4 points, 9.4 rebounds and 24 minutes in five games. Cantrell shot .595 from the floor but only .571 from the stripe. In the Philippines’ 93-92 win over the Jam, Cantrell compiled 18 points, 13 rebounds and five assists in 35 minutes. He shot 7-of-10 from the field and 4-of-6 from the line.

A nuts-and-bolts player with no frills, Cantrell has played as an import in Argentina, Venezuela and Italy. He sat out most of last year and turned down a guaranteed contract in the Korean league to be with his aging mother in San Francisco.

Although he’s just about 6-4, Cantrell is a monster rebounder. He works hard on both ends and his all-court hustle has impressed scouts all over the world. The former University of San Francisco forward–a mestizo with Portuguese, Caucasian, West Indies and African-American bloodlines–plays flat-out every second he’s on the court.

Talk ‘N’ Text holdovers playing in the Australian friendlies are Asi Taulava, Jimmy Alapag, Victor Pablo, Harvey Carey, Mark Telan, Nino Gelig and Donbel Belano. Struck out were Allan Salangsang and Don Camaso.

Vanguardia had a busy summer preparing for the coming season. Last August, he attended a coaching seminar called the Collegiate Basketball Conference in Los Angeles where he listened to lectures by Rudy Tomjanovich and Mike Krzyzewski and rubbed elbows with other participants like Bill Bayno, Maz Trakh, Danny Manning, Mark Jackson and Detlef Schrempf. Purefoods assistant coach Ronnie Magsanoc was in the audience.

To kick off the seminar, the organizers held a fund-raising celebrity dinner where Tomjanovich and Krzyzewski spoke. The proceeds were earmarked for cancer research.

"Rudy T talked about his battle with cancer and his two championship years at Houston," recounted Vanguardia. "Coach K touched on how he became very active in the coaches versus cancer drive because his mom died of cancer in 1996. He also talked about how being under Bobby Knight influenced his coaching career, among others."

Some 160 coaches attended the conference.

"It was a great experience and I learned a lot," said Vanguardia. "John Wooden was the first speaker. He’s now 95, regarded as the best coach of all time. He touched on never stop learning. I was seated next to Doc Rivers and he invited me to his training camp with the Boston Celtics but it’s on Oct. 5. Doc talked about his early offense. Pat Summit, with 31 years of coaching in Tennessee, talked about chemistry with players and her staff. Other speakers were Ben Howland of UCLA, Skip Prosser of Wake Forest, Lorenzo Romar of the University of Washington and Jay John of Oregon State."

Then, Vanguardia joined Pete Newell’s Big Man’s Camp in Las Vegas–not as a player but as part of the coordinating staff. Taulava and Telan enrolled in the camp as Talk ‘N’ Text "scholars."

Los Angeles Lakers rookie Andrew Bynum and veteran Jumaine Jones attended the camp, too. Magsanoc and Coca-Cola assistant coach Biboy Ravanes were spotted taking down notes while observing Newell’s drills.