A LOT OF PROGRESS
Meralco might have been swept in its first Final Four appearance, but that didn’t stop coach Norman Black for praising the work put in by his wards.
“It was a big improvement,” he said. “It’s a progression from where we were last year, what we did in the All-Filipino, and how we finished this conference.”
Facing a tough Rain or Shine team without import Josh Davis and Jared Dillinger, the Bolts still fought through adversity and engaged the Elasto Painters in a close one, until they ultimately fell in the end, 98-107.
“There’s some improvement in how we played tonight. They really gave the effort despite us missing Josh Davis. We made a lot of progress this year. I have to be positive as far as the performance of my players. And now, it’s just looking towards the next conference,” said Black.
Coaching in only his second conference for Meralco, the American mentor has definitely instilled his winning mentality in this crew. But Black doesn’t want to get too caught up with the developments.
“I’m always realistic. I inherited a team that came next to last the conference I took over. The whole idea is to see improvement every conference. I think we’ve shown that already. Obviously, we’re not one of the top teams in the league, but at least we’ve gone from the bottom to the middle of the pack, which is an improvement,” he said.
“The goal right now is to keep on getting better. Will it happen with this team? In the third conference, a lot will happen on the performance of our import, because that was one of the main reasons why we did well this conference, because of Josh Davis, as well as the locals. But our import, Andre Emmett, has to do well for us to do well the next conference, and (Mahdi Kamrani) if he comes, we know he’s a monster of a player.”
But the question remains, has Meralco gained the respect of its peers?
Black answers, “If you want to gain the respect of anybody, you have to win games. That’s the bottomline. Nobody’s going to respect you if you’re not going to win. We’re one game out of .500 so maybe they respect us a little bit, but I don’t think the top teams fear us.”
“Hopefully, our two imports in the third conference will give us more firepower and the draft picks will help us for years to come.” (RL)
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