PBA D-League neophytes Team Batangas may have missed the 2017 Aspirants’ Cup playoffs, but head coach Eric Gonzales saw a lot of positives in their first foray in the second league.
Coming from a sweep of the 2016 PBA D-League season, Gonzales took over a young, unpolished team of scrappy Batanguenos enforced with Meralco practice player Joseph Sedurifa, former San Beda Red Lion Dan Sara, and former Mapua Cardinal CJ Isit. Safe to say, it was far from the FEU Tamaraw-powered Phoenix Accelerators.
Despite having a rag tag team, Team Batangas did not back down. They even showed flashes of potential in their match against Wang’s Couriers last February 21, climbing from 22 points down to eke out a 97-96 win.
“Definitely we got something from this,” said Gonzales shortly after their 91-69 dismantling of playoff-bound team Cafe France-CEU Bakers Monday afternoon at JCSGO Gym in Cubao to finish their conference on a rousing note.
“Pasalamat naman ako na yung seed na tinanim namin, tumutubo naman.”
Batangas had slim chances of making it into the playoffs, but their hopes were dashed after JRU defeated Wangs last March 7. That did not stop them though, as they still won three of their last four games in the elimination round.
Finishing their campaign with a 4-5 slate, Gonzales deemed that it was still a decent run for the newly-built squad, and he already has a few things in mind to help them become a better team come the next conference — one of them by adding more depth to his line-up.
“We really have to prepare kasi a lot of them, first unit [is] okay, [kaso] second unit nasasaktan kami,” the champion coach shared regarding the composition of his team.
“I need a scorer siguro. Wala kaming lalim. And, another big man. More than that, kailangan gamitin lahat. Part ng program that you use everybody.
“Hopefully, we become better next conference,” Gonzales wished, as Team Batangas now shifts its attention to the 2017 Foundation Cup enriched from all the battles the Aspirants’ Cup brought them.
