Alaska head coach Alex Compton. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Alaska is back in the PBA Finals but this time, it is facing an opponent that is not San Miguel.
Instead the rough and tough Rain or Shine will be on the other side of the 94-foot floor when the Finals starts Friday.
And Aces head coach Alex Compton knows what the Elasto Painters can do, since it’s them who the American coach tries to emulate.
“Rain or Shine is a model for us,” Compton said Wednesday at Smart Araneta Coliseum after clinching the finals berth. “A lot of what coach Yeng [Guiao] does is cut, copy, paste in the sense of what I do. He has a system that we have, in a lot of ways, tried to emulate ourselves.”
Both teams play a blue-collar style of game built on toughness and the Beermen can attest to that.
Compton thinks Rain or Shine was the only team who has managed to dominate San Miguel, though Aces pushed the Philippine Cup champions to the limit with two Game 7s in their prior Finals matchups.
“I didn’t invent a bunch of stuff that we do. I like to watch good coaches and steal from them, if you will, copy what they do,” Compton said.
“San Miguel is so awesome, they’re [Rain or Shine] the only team that’s beaten them, no one’s beat them in a series since the start of the 2014-2015 season except Rain or Shine and that makes a statement, we got close three times, Rain or Shine did it.”
Rain or Shine walloped the Beermen 3-1 in its semifinal series with the final game ending 124-99.