For many years, Jong Uichico and Siot Tanquingcen built a winning tandem on teams they were able to handle — from San Miguel Beer to Ginebra and the latest one, NLEX, which has now secured a twice-to-beat advantage in the ongoing PBA Philippine Cup.
The Road Warriors are now guaranteed of the playoff bonus regardless of the outcome of its last elimination round assignment, but whether they end up at No.1 or No.2 also depends on theor last game against the NorthPort Batang Pier and how San Miguel Beer fares in its last three matches, including Saturday’s game against Rain or Shine.
San Miguel Beer could still end up at No.1 once it sweeps its next three matches and should NLEX loses to NorthPort.
But the Road Warriors are enjoying their best campaign since bringing in Uichico and Tanquingcen on board. It’s also the best tournament being relished by Robert Bolick since he wound up with NLEX several years ago.
“It wasn’t planned. Natataon lang naman yang mga ganyan,” said Uichico in a telephone interview with Pinoystep.com when asked about the secret of rediscovering their winning tandem alongside Tanquingcen, his long-time deputy, who also happens to be a multi-titled mentor.
Through the years, that tandem brought their championships in teams they were able to handle.
At San Miguel Beer, the Uichico-Tanquingcen coaching partnership produced five championships behind having a star-studded roster that include two-time Most Valuable Player winner Danny Ildefonso, former Rookie of the Year Danny Seigle, veteran guard Olsen Racela and dependable front court players like Nic Belasco and Dorian Pena among others.
When Tanquingcen was appointed head coach of Barangay Ginebra, he was able to lead the league’s most popular team to three championships during the reign of Eric Menk and the explosive Fast and Furious tandem of Jayjay Helterbrand and Mark Caguioa, but Uichico found himself reunited with his long-time partner, who agreed to slide down as the former’s deputy in 2006-07 season and together, they produced two more titles for the Gin Kings.
Just last year, they found themselves reconnected and it took only a matter of time for them to figure out a way in rediscovering their winning touch which they’re now using at NLEX.
In a previous interview with Tanquingcen, the returning mentor was open at how he and his head coach would share different opinions on certain coaching matters, yet they would agree on things that would help the team in winning games — and Uichico was honest about it.
“That makes this partnership worked well for us through the years,” added Uichico. “We may disagree on a lot of things, but when it comes to building philosophy that would help the team to win, we would work on that together.”
Except for Bolick, Uichico doesn’t have big names at NLEX, but the desire to win was very evident on the players.
“Masisipag sila, actually lahat sila,” said Uichico. “We don’t have big names, except probably for Bolick, but you can see the drive to win and it shows in their work ethic. We have unheralded players who’ve played big games this conference like Xyrus Torres, who has played 10-15 minutes in the MPBL and has been enjoying extended minutes for us because he’s been performing very well.”
“We have underrated players like Brandon Ramirez and JB Bahio, who were making key contributions as well. It was really their desire to push themselves at how far they can go which had given us this early success, although I cannot call it a success at this time.”
Should the Road Warriors wrap up their elimination round campaign with a win against the Batang Pier, it would be their best elimination round campaign in franchise history.
In the 2019 Governors’ Cup, the Road Warriors ended up at No.1 with an 8-3 win-loss record and brought a twice-to-beat advantage in the quarterfinal round against NorthPort, but lost twice in a row against the Batang Pier.
