Dragons to join PBA D-League
Coach Ariel Vanguardia, fresh from piloting the Westports Malaysia Dragons to the ABL championship, said yesterday he’ll call the shots for the Kuala Lumpur-based team, reinforced by two Blackwater pros, in the PBA D-League Foundation Cup set to start June 2.
But the Dragons will compete without Filforeigners Matthew Wright and Jason Brickman and imports Calvin Godfrey and Reggie Johnson, all of whom played key roles in the ABL title run this past season.
“Our plan was to showcase Matt and Jason but they’re trying out for teams in Europe at the moment,” said Vanguardia. “It’s unfortunate that they won’t be available especially since their ultimate goal is to play in the PBA.” Under PBA rules, a Fil-foreigner is eligible for the draft only after playing in two D-League conferences of at least seven games each. The exception to the rule is if a Fil-foreigner is over 30 and has played for the national team at the senior level. Brickman, 24, is a 5-11 guard who was recently named ABL MVP. The Long Island University standout led the ABL in average assists at 9.6 last season. Wright, 24, is a 6-4 guard who played for the Philippines at the FIBA Asia U18 Championships in Tehran in 2008. He hit at a 21.1 clip for Westports last season.
Vanguardia said the D- League won’t allow imports so Godfrey and Johnson are sitting out the tournament. The team will be known as the Blu Star Detergent Dragons in the D-League. Because it is affiliated with the Blackwater PBA franchise, the Dragons are paying a participation fee of P400,000 instead of the usual P600,000.
“The Malaysian national players with the Dragons will be busy at the FIBA Asia Stankovic Cup in Bangkok up to May 28,” he said. “We’ll be ready to play our first game in the D-League by June 11.” Vanguardia will be assisted by Tino Pinat and Shoghi Gan on the bench.
Blackwater coach Leo Isaac and his staff were set to meet with Vanguardia yesterday to decide which pros to lend to the Dragons. An option is Juami Tiongson. Last Friday, Blackwater beat the Gilas Cadets in a tune-up game with newly-acquired Roi Sumang in an impressive debut. “We are building relationships with Malaysia,” said Ever Bilena CEO and Blackwater team owner Dioceldo Sy. “Two Blackwater players will also play for the Dragons in Penang.”
Vanguardia, 44, has been with the Dragons since the ABL’s inception in 2009-10. His first two seasons were as an assistant coach then he took over as head coach in 2012. “It’s been an uphill climb as we went from fourth place to third to second and finally, to first place last season,” said Vanguardia, a La Salle graduate whose resume lists stints as assistant coach with Mobiline/TNT, Barako Bull and Blackwater in the PBA. “We weren’t expected to go far last season as the youngest team in the league with only four holdovers. But we managed to top the eliminations on the last day of the regular season and took the championship in Game 5 over Singapore in the best-of-five Finals. Jason was the MVP, Matt the best Asian import and Reggie the best import.”
Vanguardia said the ABL may expand from six teams to as many as nine next campaign. Indonesia is slated to return and teams from Hong Kong and Davao may join. The MX3 Kings played as the only Filipino team last season.
It was Vanguardia who brought Fil-Tongan Mo Tautuaa to the PBA via the ABL. “Every year, we hold tryouts for imports and Fil-foreigners in the US,” he said. “Former PBA player Pongky Alolor, who now lives in San Francisco, tracks players in the Fil-Am leagues and brings them to our tryouts.”
Vanguardia said his life is exclusively devoted to basketball as his wife Linette, a nurse, lives in Los Angeles and their only child Alyana, 14, will soon join her mother. Their daughter is a student at Domuschola International School, owned by former PBA player Joel Banal. The school is where children of several PBA players, including Asi Taulava and Harvey Carey, are enrolled.
Aside from coaching, Vanguardia is involved in a basketball events outfit called Splash Hoops International with Australian partner Ryan Burns. So far, Splash has conducted clinics in China, Indonesia and several cities in Malaysia. Included in the Splash staff are Pinat, Lito Vergara and Cesar Polhen.
Splash’s next project is to organize clinics for coach Vance Walberg, known as the father of the dribble drive motion offense, in Malaysia and the Philippines. Walberg, 59, worked with John Calipari at the University of Memphis in creating the dribble drive system and was head coach at Pepperdine University before joining the staff of the Denver Nuggets, Philadelphia 76ers and Sacramento Kings in the NBA.
Walberg will arrive in Manila on June 7 then leaves for Kuala Lumpur on June 10. He’ll be back in Manila on June 13 and will conduct a coaching clinic on June 18-19 at the Kerry Sports gym in the Shangri-La Hotel, Global City. The clinic is open to all levels of coaches and Walberg will accept up to 100 participants. The fee is P5,000 per coach. Interested parties may contact Vanguardia at coachav@kldragons.com <mailto:coachav@kldragons.
com> or cell No. 0915-8353888. “It’s a rare opportunity for someone of Vance’s background to do a clinic in Manila,” said Vanguardia. “Ordinarily, we would go abroad to attend a camp conducted by Vance. But instead of spending for air fare and hotel, we can stay home and learn from Vance himself. We’re excited to offer this chance to interact with the father of the dribble drive motion offense.”