Iranians’ great progress awes 2 former Letran coaches

NEMIE Villegas and Larry Albano are names that may not ring a bell to the modern-day Filipino basketball fan. But both know their basketball.

Villegas and Albano were coaches of the Letran squads that posted a historic title romp in senior and high school basketball, respectively, in the 1979 NCAA season.

Both were very animated spectators during Iran’s rout of Jordan in the quarterfinal-round action of the 27th Fiba Asia Championship: They just couldn’t believe how good Iran is nowadays.

“In the late 1970s, before I won the NCAA (title), (national teams of) Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia came to Letran and they couldn’t beat us,” said Villegas, who had the likes of Ramon San Juan, Bong Aninon, Itoy Esguerra and Ed Baldomero as players back then.

“That’s true, because I remember back in the day when the Kuwaiti and Qatari youth squads couldn’t beat my Letran high school team,” said Albano, who is now based in the United States. Musong R. Castillo