Adamson’s Nico Paranada. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
The moment Franz Pumaren saw Nico Paranada, he was sure he had seen him before.
Not that they had known each other for a long time, but it was because the Adamson head coach was reminded of his former player watching Paranada play.
And that was what Pumaren and Paranada’s first conversation was all about.
“The first time I met coach Franz, that was the first thing he told me. He told me go look up who JVee Casio is, because you remind me of him,” the rookie guard recalled.
Paranada was raised in San Diego in the US and hearing the name JVee Casio didn’t ring a bell.
But when he saw highlights of Casio online, he instantly wanted to emulate his moves.
“I looked him up and ever since them I just looked up to him as an idol, try to play like him, similar to him.”
Pumaren coached Casio before at De La Salle and they shared a UAAP championship in 2007. Casio now stars for the Alaska Aces in the PBA.
The 18-year-old Paranada has been used sparingly until the Falcons’ final game in the first round of eliminations on Wednesday where Pumaren played him for 20 minutes, after logging just 3.3 minutes in the other three games he had seen action in.
Paranada made the most out of his opportunity with a breakout game, finishing with 14 points, four assists and four steals after averaging just 0.3 points in his previous outings.
“Coach put me in the game and I just wanted to make sure, I wanted to take advantage of the playing time I’m getting and make sure on the offensive end, I try to help my team get a bucket, and on the defensive end, try to get a stop every possession,” he said.
“That’s why I recruited him from San Diego, he has all the potential, he has all the makings of a very good player. In fact, my description is just like describing JV Casio,” Pumaren said. “Very unpredictable, you think he’s slow but he’s quick, high basketball IQ. But he’s still adjusting to college basketball, and Philippine type of basketball here.”
Pumaren expects Paranada’s good showing to carry over into the next round where the competition gets stiffer.
“Down the road, it’s a good springboard for him to perform this coming second round. You know, if you look at our four games, all the games that he played, he won.”