Cone: Ginebra, TnT both dangerous

The Alaska Aces topped the eliminations of the PBA Philippine Cup and will advance to a best-of-seven semifinal playoff against the winner of the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings versus Talk n Text Tropang Texters quarterfinal duel.

Both teams are equally formidable opponents and Alaska coach Tim Cone said he does not have any preference which ball club he would rather face in the semifinal.

“Ginebra or Talk n Text? Neither is an attractive opponent in a best of seven series. But there is never an easy opponent in the semifinal,” said coach Tim.

If the record this season is any indication then the Gin Kings would be the tougher opponents because Alaska split their games against Ginebra.

Alaska beat Ginebra 105-96 last Oct. 25. But the Aces in turn lost to the Gin Kings, 90-93, last Jan. 9. On the other hand Alaska beat Talk n Text twice. The Aces overcame the Tropang Texters 110-106 last Nov. 20 and repeated with a 119-113 victory on Dec. 16.

Whichever team the Aces face next coach Tim is very satisfied with having qualified to the semifinal outright.

“The last time we were in the top two we went to the final. The last time before that we won a championship. That’s how important we feel the semifinals are. It’s really a huge advantage when you make it to the semis outright,” said coach Tim.

The biggest hindrance for coach Tim and the Aces will be the long three-week break while they await the survivors of the Wildcard phase and the best-of-five quarterfinals. The Aces went through a similarly long period of inactivity during the Christmas break and they did not handle the situation as well as coach Tim would have wanted.

The Aces roared off to a blazing 11-1 start in the eliminations then promptly lost four of their next five games to wind up with 12-5 card and needing to win their last game.

It took the heroics of Willie Miller, who scored the team’s final nine points, to propel the Aces to a 95-94 victory over the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters and finally push them over the hump and into the semifinals with a 13-win, 5-loss slate.

“It’s one of those things we try to tell our players: you can’t relax if things are going well because you can’t just turn on your intensity when you need to. Obviously we didn’t handle the long 21-day break well. We didn’t practice hard and we came out ‘kampante’ when we played the games. When we needed to win we became tight when faced with the sudden pressure,” said coach Tim.

“That was my fault entirely. I didn’t push our players hard enough during our practices. We lost our edge in the long break and we just couldn’t turn it back on when we needed to. I didn’t do a good job. I hope we learn our lesson and step up a lot more during the coming long break.”

The Aces face another long break but the Alaska mentor is confident that his team will be able to handle the situation better because of what they had to go through to advance to the semifinals.

“We’re looking back on it now and obviously we didn’t handle it well. I didn’t plan it out well. We didn’t practice as well or as hard,” said coach Tim.

The Alaska mentor said he will have to make sure that the Aces practice hard so that they don’t lose that edge that they’ve built up over the course of the double round robin elimination.

“We’ve always been known as a great practice team. We always have great practices where the players work really hard. We have to get back to that to be ready for the semifinal,” said coach Tim.