Happy birthday, Rajko

It was the perfect birthday present for Barako Bull coaching consultant Rajko Toroman. Last Sunday, he turned 58 and marked the celebration by piloting the Energy Cola to a miracle 98-88 overtime win over Global Port in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

When the Batang Pier sat on a 10-point lead with 1:59 to go in regulation, the outlook was bleak for Barako to escape. But interim head coach Bong Ramos kept the faith. “I knew we still had a chance,” he said. “We play tough defense and we’ve got a lot of three-point shooters. We didn’t give up.”

Slowly, Barako chipped away at the lead. The breaks went Barako’s way twice as the Energy kept possession on a pair of critical out-of-bounds plays. Toroman was confidently on top of every situation although teetering on the brink of collapse. During a timeout, he called for a trap on the Global ballcarrier and import Evan Brock got the nod to put the cuffs on. The trap worked as Barako forced a turnover on Global. Then, import Justin Williams was whistled for a five-second violation in failing to inbound, resulting in another Barako possession.

With 4.9 seconds left, Global protected a three-point lead as Barako came off a timeout to inbound under the Energy’s basket. Toroman once again mapped out the play. Jonas Villanueva inbounded. Josh Urbiztondo came from the middle, used a pick and disengaged from the defense to scurry to the far left corner. Mark Macapagal, who set a back screen for Urbiztondo, scampered to the other corner, also using a pick to freeze out defender Gary David. Lost in the shuffle was Williams. With the defense focused on Urbiztondo, Macapagal was free to receive the pass from Villanueva. Williams hurried to close out. Macapagal faked Williams off his feet, moved to the side and unleashed a triple that hit the bottom of the net. The score was tied, 86-all, and Global failed to execute in the last 0.9 as the game went into overtime.

In extension, Danny Seigle took over with five points and Global was done for the night. Williams finished the contest on the bench, suffering from cramps. Seigle limped back to the dressing room with pain in his calf and gave up Best Player honors for Urbiztondo who wound up with 24 points, five rebounds and four assists in 46 minutes. Seigle delivered 16 points, including a monster dunk off Williams. He also compiled three rebounds and an assist with no turnover in 26 minutes. What was remarkable was Barako’s 22-2 surge in the last seven minutes, including overtime, to seal it. What was also remarkable was Toroman got the job done with a lean rotation. Five players logged at least 34 minutes, indicating a shallow rotation with the absence of J. C. Intal, Sean Anthony, Celino Cruz, Emman Monfort, Jojo Duncil and Enrico Villanueva.

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After the game, Toroman and wife Tanya hosted a dinner at the Balkan Restaurant on Perea Street in Makati. The eatery, which serves Yugoslavian food, is one of two specialty dining places owned by former La Salle cager Marko Batricevic, a Serbian like Toroman. Batricevic’ first restaurant is still drawing big crowds in San Juan and a third will soon open at the Fort. Among Toroman’s guests were Barako team owner George Chua’s family, his son Michael, Ramos, his “son” Chris Tiu, his “stepson” Energy assistant coach Charles Tiu, team manager Raffy Casyao and sports agent Charlie Dy.

The next day, Toroman arranged a tune-up against the UE varsity for his comebacking and sparingly-used players to soak in a game atmosphere and condition their minds and bodies. It was scheduled for players like Intal, who will make his Barako debut against Alaska on Sunday, and Don Allado who’s recovering from flu and working to game shape. Even Charles Tiu got to play as a “sixth man.”

Toroman said with Global’s twin towers Williams and Japeth Aguilar protecting the rim, he was forced to set up plays for outside shots. Barako hit 13-of-40 triples and 21-of-48 shots from two-point range. “We had no inside game, no post-up,” he explained. “Our import Evan isn’t a one-on-one type player. He’s a team guy, he doesn’t stop working hard. In position four, Mick (Pennisi) struggled and Don could only play eight minutes. Don played well in our practice games but got sick before the conference started. He’ll be a major contributor because he’s a smart defender and a scorer. Luckily, Danny played very well in position four.”

Toroman said once more players are cleared to suit up, the rotation will be more fluid. A player who won’t log too many minutes this conference is Doug Kramer. “We’ve decided to use Doug at position five to back up Evan,” said Ramos. “It’s more crowded in position four with Mick, Danny and Don.” 

Pennisi is fondly called by teammates as Toroman’s son because they look alike. Someone in the team joked that their ages aren’t too far apart. Toroman said at the rate he’s losing his hair, he’ll really look more like Pennisi soon.

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Ramos said Barako’s roster lists 22 players, the most of any PBA team. The lineup includes practice players Marc Agustin and Paul Sorongon. Woody Co is also in the cast. Roger Yap underwent minor surgery to clean out his knee of bone spurs last Monday and will be out five weeks. There is talk that Yap, now in the reserve list with two years left on his contract, is being eyed by Meralco to reunite with coach Ryan Gregorio – they were together at Purefoods.

“I’m learning a lot from coach Rajko,” said Ramos who used to be an import coach in Indonesia. “It’s the European style, a lot of motion, picks and free space for jump shots. Against Global, we were focused to play defense. We didn’t want Williams to get away with easy dunks, we decided to give Japeth (Aguilar) shots instead of Sol (Mercado), Willie (Miller) and Gary (David) who can win games for any team. I was so happy for Mark when he hit that three to send it to overtime. He couldn’t make a shot until then. That’s the good thing about coach Rajko’s system. Everybody gets a chance. That inbounds play to bring the ball to Mark for the three-pointer was just introduced by coach Rajko at practice. It worked like he planned it.”

There was one candle in his birthday cake and Toroman made a wish before blowing it out. What was his wish? Another Barako win on Sunday, for sure. If the Energy goes up 3-0, it will be the team’s best start in 10 conferences.