Alaska Aces General Manager Joaqui Trillo said the team will bring in mobile big man Matt Haryasz as their reinforcement for the Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner`s Cup set to start the second week of February.

Haryaz is quick and mobile for his size. He played for Stanford University 2002 to 2006. He never made it to the National Basketball Association but was among the last to be cut from the Houston Rockets lineup going into 2006-2007 NBA season. He is a veteran professional basketball player with stops in Italy, Germany, Israel, Belgium and Holland.

He was named to the First-team All-Pac-10 in his senior season in 2005-2006 when he played in 28 games for the Cardinal, including 26 starts. He led the team with 16.2 points per game, 8.7 rebounds per game and a total of 47 blocks for the year.

`He`s supposed to be a quick player. So we plan to pit Sonny (Thoss), Sam (Eman) and JayR Reyes against the other teams` own imports. We`ll let our import roam around the perimeter. So that their big men will have their hands full,` said Trillo.

Haryasz is scheduled to arrive on the Jan. 17.

`We were about to send him (Haryasz) to the big man`s camp to join our three players over there. But it turned out to be not necessary. This guy is a professional. He kept himself in shape, so he`ll just come straight to the Philippines,` saidTrillo.

The Alaska GM said there is only a month left before the start of the next conference. The players have been practicing for a while and are eager to prove themselves.

The Aces placed ninth in a field of ten teams during the past PBA Philippine Cup in large part because coach Joel Banal took over the head coaching reins with about two weeks before the start of the conference.

`That is a big factor also for our finish last conference. So I told coach Joel (Banal), now you have more time. So the honeymoon is over, you know. Even Mr. Fred Uytengsu told him that he expects a better placing now in the second conference,` said Trillo.

The Aces will have a virtually intact lineup except for Brandon Cablay who had surgery.

`Brandon Cablay was operated on the spine. He will probably take five or six weeks before he comes back. Coach Joel therefore recruited Nino Gelig to try out for the team. Gelig is a running mate of Cyrus Baguio in UST,` said Trillo.

The PBA Commissioner`s Cup starts this coming February 10. The pre-conference preparation of the teams is crucial because of the format. The Elimination Round will be a single round robin competition with each team playing nine games. After all the teams have played nine games the first and second place teams automatically advance to the semifinals.

The stakes will therefore also be bigger because two teams can advance straight to the semifinals after the eliminations.

The next four teams - from third to sixth places - will advance to the quarterfinals where they will play a best-of-three playoff. The third ranked team battles the sixth ranked team. The fourth ranked team will battle the fifth ranked team.

The remaining four last placed teams are eliminated outright.

The two winners of the quarterfinals advance to the best-of-seven semifinals against the top two teams after the eliminations. Later the winners play in the best-of-seven championship series.