Liga makes waves

In a radical but welcome change, Liga Pilipinas shelved the traditional home-and-away NBA-style playoff series format to employ the FIBA approach of staging a seven-day “super leg” tournament culminating in the finals of the Conference III championships at the Cebu Coliseum.

Only five of the 10 Liga teams are still in contention. The “super leg” started last Monday and ends this Sunday.

During the regular season or the elimination phase, the 10 Liga squads played 10 home-and-away legs. Tour points were awarded to each team based on its finish in every leg with the top two overall placers qualifying outright for the “super leg.” The last two finishers were struck out, leaving six contenders to vie for three “super leg” slots left.

The six contenders slugged it out in three separate “wild card” series where No. 3 played No. 8, No. 4 went up against No. 7 and No. 5 took on No. 6. Teams 3, 4 and 5 enjoyed a twice-to-beat advantage by virtue of their higher rankings.

The Cebu Niños, carrying the colors of M. Lhuillier Kwarta Padala, swept their 10 legs to post an unblemished 16-0 record, earning 60 “golden” tour points for the first “super leg” ticket.

Coach Yayoy Alcoseba’s lineup lists five ex-PBA cagers, namely, Marlon Basco, Abby Santos, Stephen Padilla, Bruce Dacia and Mark Magsumbol. Additionally, three of his assistant coaches were former PBA players, namely, Willy Generalao, Lawrence Merced and Lou Regidor while team consultant Alfredo Enriquez, now 61, is revered as a PBA legend who saw action in the league’s pioneer season in 1975. Sharing the load with the ex-pros are local stars Ian Saladaga, Ariel Mepana, Mark Ababon and Woodrow Enriquez.

The other outright “super leg” qualifier was Pampanga, whose Smart Buddies barely edged out Quezon, 36 points to 35, in the elimination standings for the second playoff ticket. Three ex-pros are in coach Allan Gregorio’s cast - Chris Nicdao, Niño Gelig and Jonathan Aldave. Among his mainstays are veteran Eugene Tan, 6-5 Hans Thiele, Fil-Am Allan Husted, Al Magpayo and Edwin Asoro.

The two teams that failed to make it out of the eliminations were the Zamboanga Uno Latinos and the EKB Apayao Rapids.

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In the “wild card” phase, No. 3 Quezon Red Oilers ousted No. 8 MP General Santos City Warriors, No. 4 Misamis Oriental Meteors beat No. 7 Mandaue Land Masters and No. 6 Laguna Trace Stallions upset No. 5 Forward Taguig. The Oilers and Meteors took only a game to advance while the Stallions had to repulse Taguig twice to qualify for the “super leg.”

Liga Pilipinas president Noli Eala said the other day the change in format was inspired by FIBA.

“It’s a take-off from what FIBA does in a week-long tournament with five teams,” explained Eala. “We start out with a single round-robin then the top finisher makes it to the finals outright and the second and third placers play off for the other finals slot. For Liga, we’ve created a ‘super leg’ to retain our multi-leg format. We accepted bids from the qualifiers to host the ‘super leg’ and Cebu turned in the best offer.”

This Saturday, the second and third finishers will play off for the right to play the top placer in the finals the next day. The Saturday program will include the Miss Liga Pilipinas pageant, an exhibition game involving league and team officials, basketball clinics, a team owners conference and the awarding of conference honors.

On Sunday, it will be the battle for the Conference III title. The first Liga conference crown went to Cebu and Misamis Oriental won the second. Both championships were held using the home-and-away NBA playoff series system. The “super leg” innovation was introduced only this year for the Conference III tournament.

 Eala said Liga will use the term “conference” not “season” to classify its sequence of championships by numbers like in the UFC.

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Of the five contenders, only coach Oliver Bunyi’s Quezon Red Oilers are playing without PBA veterans, banking instead on stalwarts like Luis Palaganas, Robert Labagala, Eric Suguitan, Hafer Mondragon and Floyd Dedicatoria.

Coach Nomar Isla’s Stallions are bannered by ex-pros Robert Sanz, Ron Capati and Marlon Legaspi while coach Jun Noel’s defending champion Meteors are leaning on PBA veterans Joey Mente, Philip Butel, Melvin Mamaclay and Mark Kong backstopped by Patrick Cabahug, Erian Daja, Eder Saldua, Mark Moreno and Khiel Misa.

Misamis Oriental trounced Pampanga, 70-62, and Cebu downed Quezon, 75-61, to ignite the “super leg” hostilities last Monday.

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