Surprised Uytengsu enjoys 14th PBA title like his first

MANILA, Philippines – Wilfred Uytengsu never thought that a championship in the post-Tim Cone era would come this quick. 

“It’s really wonderful to embark on this journey and to just see the fruits of labor pay off, I am pleasantly surprised. I honestly didn’t think success would come this quickly,” Uytengsu said moments after lifting the franchise’s 14^th title and first since Cone left the team. 

After all, his Alaska Aces are coming off their worst season in their franchise history.  This came after the much talked about break-up between the franchise and Cone, their coach for 22 years, nearly two years ago.

“We wanted to rebuild the franchise. I told Luigi [Trillo] that there’s going to be a lot of work, he’s going to work harder the next year than he’s worked his entire life combined,” Uytengsu said.

At that time, Trillo was coming off a ninth place finish with the Aces in his first conference as the head coach but only on interim basis after replacing Joel Banal.

But Uytengsu did not listen to the whispers of the ghost of Trillo’s infamous 0-28 seasons in the UAAP. What he saw was Trillo’s runner-up finish with Cebuana Lhuillier in the PBA D-League.

“Every new coach is going to have that. If you look back at my not very early years, with Tim [Cone], there’s a lot of patience. With Luigi, it’s the same thing,” Uytengsu explained.

“I said don’t be worried about success.  As long as I see progress and you’re investing the effort then the results will come in. That’s my philosophy throughout the years,” Uytengsu added.

Trillo was retained but the interim title was taken out.

Now with a blanket authority, the son of the Aces’ long-time manager Joaqui Trillo went on to build a championship team. The younger Trillo took in Alex Compton, Louie Alas and brought back Topex Robinson in his coaching staff.

With a strong foundation in place, the Aces started to work on the pieces that would complete their championship puzzle.

They tabbed a potential franchise player in Calvin Abueva in the Rookie Draft so it was moot and academic when the team traded a disgruntled point guard LA Tenorio away in exchange for a solid but less flashier Jvee Casio then got veteran Dondon Hontiveros that became the team's glue-guy.

Those three key pieces transformed the team into a Final Four team in the first conference of the season. With that confidence-builder coupled with a solid import in Robert Dozier, the Aces maniacally worked their way to the top.

“We had a good omen when we won our first game in the conference. But what’s the most important is that we didn’t rest in our laurels there.  We continued with the hardwork throughout the elimination round and playoffs,” Uytengsu said.

The Aces took the number one seed after the eliminations then exorcised the demons of a long spell against their former coach with a 3-1 series win over Cone and the San Mig Coffee Mixers to advance to the Finals.

The best defense in the league right now was in full display in the finals against a tired Brgy. Ginebra San Miguel Kings. What made the Aces' three-game series sweep more remarkable was the 18.3 average margin of victory.

“In fairness to Ginebra, they thread the eye of the needle game after game. They worked really hard. I don’t think you could’ve predicted the series would end this way,” Uytengsu said.   

The young looking team owner has done it again. His patience took him three years to win his first PBA title with Cone. He took only three conferences with Trillo.

Now, Uytengsu is looking at another potential dynasty.

“I think this is just the first of many to come. I told Luigi to enjoy but we’re going to win more with this team and coaching staff.”