Gilas five bounce back By Jesus A. Garcia Jr. SPORTS pages were suddenly filled with varying opinions after the embarrassing defeat by our Gilas Five against FIBA Asia novice squad Palestine. I believe that was a ‘wake-up’ call for the Gilas because their five succeeding games were all victories, winning…

Gilas Pilipina’s embarrassing defeat By Jesus a. Garcia Jr. I WATCHED how our national squad “Gilas Pilipinas” lost its first game in this year’s FIBA Asia in Changsha, China to a greenhorn team, Palestine. Yes, I, too, was shocked on seeing a neophyte team that had amateurs in form from…

LNU and UL quintets, champions again? By Jesus A. Garcia Jr. THERE are two collegiate basketball tourneys being held here in Dagupan City these days. The Universities Colleges Athletic Association of Pangasinan (UCAAP) and the (Private School Athletic Association (PRISAA) tourney. UCAAP is composed of five tertiary schools is spearheaded…

Gilas 2015 is not weak at all By Jesus A. Garcia Jr. WE watched how our national basketball squad called “Gilas” composed of all professional dribblers from PBA landed second in the prestigious annual international tourney the 37th William Jones Cup. We were defeated twice in the nine-nation tourney succumbing…

Weak Gilas 2015? By Jesus A. Garcia, Jr. IT’S hard to believe how our Gilas 2015 national team could have lost all its three games in Estonia in the four nation Toyota Cup last month. Our Gilas five (ranked 45th by FIBA) lost to FIBA ranked 41 Netherland by 27…

2015 UCAAP and PRISAA By Jesus A. Garcia Jr. WE avid followers of basketball games in the province now have mixed feelings about the UCAAP (Universities Colleges Athletic Association of Pangasinan) and the PRISAA (Private School Athletic Association) tournaments. Both used to hold tournaments under one umbrella but for reasons…

Politics in PH cage five? By Jesus A. Garcia Jr. PHILIPPINES’ biggest sports news this week is about the backing out of some San Miguel Corp.’s core players in “Gilas Pilipinas” set to play in this year’s FIBA Asia Championship in Hunan, China from September 23 to October, a qualifying…

China broke our hearts again By Jesus A. Garcia Jr. POWERFUL China first broke our hearts when it cockily occupied some of the Spratly Islands off Zambales province which we maintain are ours. Then China, a perennial topnotch in the Asian Games, beat us anew in the world of sports…

Finally played and done By Jesus A. Garcia Jr. PERHAPS prompted by my piece two weeks ago, the organizers of the Mangaldan cagefest “Sarag Mi Ni” Inter-Barangay Basketball Tournament for 40 years old and above, decided to finally stage the second game of the best-of-three championship series last Sunday (August…

Broom-broom Froome By Jesus A. Garcia Jr. BEING a former professional cyclist, I can’t help but to comment on the just concluded 2015 Tour de France (TdF) winner, Christopher Froome of England, his second after three years. Yes, he’s the only Briton to conquer the Tour. Chris Froome was not…