Aces not one and done, says Uytengsu

THE 2013 Commissioner’s Cup champion Alaska Aces savor their victory with team owner Wilfred Uytengsu (holding trophy). AUGUST DELA CRUZ

Everyone thought Alaska owner Wilfred Uytengsu had gone nuts when he appointed Luigi Trillo—zero for 28 as a UAAP coach and winless in a short stint on the bench in the D-League—coach of the Aces in the PBA.

After two conferences of coaching duties in the pro league, everyone is now calling Trillo a champion and Uytengsu a genius.

“I made that decision based on merits and his potential,” Uytengsu told the Inquirer over the phone the morning after Alaska swept Barangay Ginebra in the Commissioner’s Cup Finals Sunday.

So what merits did Trillo have?

“Sometimes, you have to look at someone: ‘Are they willing to put on the effort and do they have the capability?’ said Uytengsu. “There’s something that told me he would be a good fit for the team. I just couldn’t point a finger at it.

“I understand that he (Trillo) didn’t have a stellar coaching career (before), but if you go back, when I hired Tim (Cone), Luigi had far more experience than Tim at the time,” Uytengsu continued. “Tim had only coached a high school team.”

Cone, who moved over to a more lucrative position at San Mig Coffee two seasons ago, has become one of the greatest coaches the PBA has ever seen, winning 13 championships with the Aces, including a Grand Slam in 1996.

Some members of that team were the logical picks of most experts to take over from Joel Banal when he resigned two conferences after Cone left the team. But Trillo proved a gem of a choice.

Trillo lost just four games this conference, including one in the playoffs that came against Cone and San Mig in the Final Four.

SONNY Thoss (left) nails the Papa John’s Pizza-PBA Press Corps Finals MVP award, while coach Luigi Trillo (right) rides the shoulders of his Aces after bagging his first PBA title. With Thoss are PBAPC secretary Waylon Galvez of the Bulletin, Papa John’s Pizza marketing manager Marifi Serafin and managing director Bobby Ocampo.

Assembling a complete team was another master stroke of Uytengsu, who admitted that he dealt away LA Tenorio because his former point guard had wanted to put national interest first.

“It was very tough letting LA go,” Uytengsu said. “LA is a great player but I wanted to make sure that as a developing team, we needed everyone’s attention to Team Alaska. We’ve given to the national team so many times and his position that national team was a priority didn’t fit with us.

“It was a win-win trade. LA went to the Finals and won (the) Best Player (of the Conference award),” he said. “And he’s the perfect gentleman. He came up to me in the stands and congratulated me. LA is a real stand-up guy.”

Uytengsu believes that he has a team that’s in it for the long haul.

“I look at the lineup—the veteran leadership and the young talent,” he said. “We want to win more. They (my players) should be happy, they should celebrate.

“But we’re not about one and done. It’s about continuous improvement. For us, good enough never is.”