Gregorio wants giant sweep of the season

MANILA, Philippines - No sooner after accomplishing a record PBA feat, the Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants now want to complete a sweep of the season.

The Giants made history by becoming the first team to score a sweep of the PBA All-Filipino finals, beating the Alaska Aces in four games capped by an 86-76 victory before a roaring crowd of over 16,000 at the Araneta Coliseum last Wednesday.

Now, they’re looking forward to achieving a feat never done in the PBA in over two decades - sweep the 2010 PBA season.

“We will definitely not wait for another four years, another winter Olympics to win another championship. Four years are far in between. We’ll continue to strive hard. We’ll try to be the best again (in the next conference),” said Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio.

The Giants will be setting out to break a cycle of winning a title only every after four years since 2002. And Gregorio believes he has the materials to accomplish the feat.

“It’s a gift from heaven. It has put us in a position to achieve a double-championship in the season, so why not give it a good try,” said Purefoods top gun James Yap.

“This (Philippine Cup) championship alone is great. This is something that can never be taken away from us for the rest of our lives,” added Yap, winner of both the Best Player of the Conference award and the Handy Fix Finals MVP honors.

Only three teams - the Crispa Redmanizers, the San Miguel Beermen and the Alaska Milk Aces - have swept all titles in a season in the long history of the country’s premier pro league. But no team has done it since Alaska pulled off its Triple Crown in 1996.

Purefoods, soon to be called Derby Aces Llamados, will begin its chase of the second jewel in the Fiesta Conference beginning March 21 with Reggie Larry as import.

Larry, a Boise State product, was Purefoods’ original choice as reinforcement last year but couldn’t play as he suffered an injury a few days before the tourney. He’s fresh from a stint with the Brunei Barracudas in the Asean Basketball League ruled by the Philippine Patriots.

Making it 2-0 versus Alaska’s Tim Cone in their personal championship duels, Gregorio said he’s able to do it because he’s been lucky to have the better team.

“I refuse to think it’s a battle between coach Tim Cone and Ryan Gregorio. If it’s one-on-one, I would’ve lost easily. I relied on my players. I used my team as my armor. I’m happy I always have the better team each time we go head-to-head,” said Gregorio.

“Coach Tim Cone is up there and nobody is close. I have no illusion that I’m better than him. He’s still the winningest active coach. He’s got 12 championships and I have only three, so no comparison,” added Gregorio.

The Purefoods mentor said everything fell into place after they reacquired Marc Pingris and Paul Artadi and got Rafi Reavis and KG Canaleta on trade deals then landed Rico Maierhofer from the rookie draft.

“Suddenly, I have my champion team back,” said Gregorio.

“Still, it’s not easy. What made this win sweeter was the way we started. We went on a roller coaster ride, winning and losing. Punctuating it with seven straight wins is close to impossible. But we did it. It made it more memorable,” Gregorio said.

“Our will and determination to survive can’t be described in words. We’re supposed to be tired and the inferior team. Yes, we’re tired on the court, we’re tired in practice but we prayed hard. And those prayers were answered,” Gregorio added.

But even after the smoke of the battle had cleared, Gregorio said he couldn’t believe they were able to get the job done in record fashion.

“We never talked about the sweep. We just wanted to compete and play a good series,” said Gregorio.