Interbasket

The San Beda Red Lions basketball team has boasted of one of the most successful basketball programs in the recent history.

The Lions are given all the financial support it needs, thanks to a very strong alumnae boosters program, and a very generous patron with extra deep wallets in Manny V. Pangilinan, more commonly known as “MVP”.

All this glowing support comes at a price, though.  And that price comes in the form of very high expectations from their fans, with an almost constant pressure to win.  Recently, it has come to the point that it is not enough for the team to win, but to win big.  And anything less, and it seems the fans end up questioning Coach Frankie Lim’s competence to coach the team.

‘High Expectations’
This was apparent in the Red Lion’s two recent games. Against the Philippine Christian University (PCU) Dolphins, the team was behind for the first three quarters, before taking a nine-point win. The team won, but it was seen negatively because it was a close game for most of the game.

Same thing against the San Sebastian College-Recoletos (SSC-R) Stags; The team again fell behind the first three quarters, with game ending up tied in regulation, and going into overtime. The Red Lions eventually won by only a single point.

As a result of the close wins, negative talks about Frankie Lim have surfaced.  Again. And some of these have been quite ugly.

I think that such types of expectation and scrutiny is unfair, and counter productive in the long run. These expectations put undue pressure on the Coach and the team, where they end up unable to “breathe”.  Any hiccups in the games, and it is immediately seen negatively.

Coaches, like players, also have their off nights. And reviewing their competence on a per game game basis doesn’t reflect his value or competence as a whole.

Other Coaches
To try to put this in perspective, let’s try to take a very close look at the performances of the other coaches in the league.

Let’s begin with George Gallent, Coach of the San Sebastian College-Recoletos (SSC-R) Stags.   Some people talk about the Stags’ glowing performance against the Red Lions, taking them into overtime, and losing by only one point.

But, then, the Stags had a two-loss, one win record going into the SBC versus SSSC-R match. Projected as a Final Four team this season, they lost their first game against the UPHS-D Altas, of all teams. Then went on to lose to the Mapua Cardinals, a team SBC beat by 29 points, before winning their game against the JRU Bombers.

Next, lets look at Louie Alas, the “ace” (pun intended) coach of the Colegio de San Juan de Letran (CSJL) Knights. Sure, the Knights now has a three-zero win-loss record, but their pre-season performances were not as impressive. They never went beyond the eliminations in the 2008 Nike Summer League. They had a two-one win-loss record in the 2008 Fil-Oil Tournament, but lost to the Blazers, a low ranked team in the NCAA.

Worst of all, the Knights lost to the Arellano University Chiefs in the Father Martin Cup Three for that tournament’s crown, even though the Chiefs is not even in the NCAA or UAAP.

The bottom line, is that if these two excellent coaches had been under the same unfair scrutiny as Frankie Lim, I doubt very much if they had been able to keep their jobs. Gallent would’ve likely been fired, while Alas would’ve been fired in the pre-season. And yet look at them now, especially Alas.

Objective Review
For the SBC community, I think they should look at Frankie Lim’s performance as Coach as objectively as possible, and not try to judge it on a per game basis.   Doing so will only result in nitpicking and a lot of negativity.  Doing so will not reflect his overall value or skills as a coach of the team.

The best way to do this, would be to require Frankie Lim one and only one goal: Win the NCAA Championship. It shouldn’t matter how many games he losses, or how many close games he wins. The only that should matter, is that the team wins the most important games, and the crown.

A good example would be Franz Pumaren. On his way to the UAAP crown last year, Franz didn’t win all of the games they played, nor did they win decisively each and every single game.  What Franz did do, was win the most important games.