Northern Cement basketball team

Northern Cement Corporation
Leagues	Philippine Basketball Association (1984–1985)
Founded	1980
History	Northern Cement 1980–86 Northern Consolidated Cement 1980–86 San Miguel Beer 1984–86
Arena	(none)
Location	Philippines
Team colors	Blue, white and red
President	Eduardo Cojuangco, Jr.
Head coach	Ron Jacobs
Championships	1981 William Jones Cup, 1981 Southeast Asian Games gold medal, 1982 ABC Juniors Championship, 1985 William Jones Cup 1985 PBA Reinforced Conference, 1985 Southeast Asian Games, 1985 ABC Championship
Website	Northern Cement Corporation
Uniforms
Home Away

This article is about the basketball team that previously represented the Philippines. For the Philippine corporation, see San Miguel Corporation. For Philippine Basketball Association team, see San Miguel Beermen.

See also: Philippines men's national basketball team

The Northern Cement basketball team was the name which referred to the former national basketball program and training pool for the Philippines' national basketball team from 1980 to 1986. The team also used the names Northern Consolidated Cement and San Miguel Beer.

History

NCC Era

In 1980, businessman and Ambassador Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco, founder and owner of Northern Cement Corporation, was appointed by the Philippine government, under President Ferdinand E. Marcos, to become the project director for basketball in the country. Cojuangco (despite not being an officer or member of the national basketball governing body at that time, the Basketball Association of the Philippines) was tasked to set up, finance, and develop national basketball team to represent the country internationally. During that time, the best players in the country were playing in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), the first professional basketball league in the Philippines, and in Asia. With the Fédération Internationale de Basketball Amateur ruling that only amateur basketball players would be allowed to participate in national basketball team tournaments, Cojuangco sought a way to keep the Philippine basketball competitive on the international stage, without the country's best players.

Coaches Ron Jacobs and Ben Lindsey of the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the United States were brought in to handle the team, and it was eventually Jacobs who became head coach.

Seeking to fast-track the success of the program, the first team formed in 1981 was mainly made up of 8 American players who became naturalized Filipinos (a practice also common to European national teams at that time) which included Dennis Still and Jeff Moore. Two Filipino-Americans, Willie Pearson, and National Basketball Association Filipino-American draftee Ricardo Brown were included, along with two local players in JB Yango and Frankie Lim, both from San Beda College. This was done with the intention of passing on new basketball technology to the Filipino cagers. The team easily won the 4th William Jones Cup in 1981, but failed to gain support among some Filipino fans, as they viewed the program as merely having foreigners represent the country. The first team was eventually scrapped, and Jacobs was then asked to develop local talents instead.

In 1981, at the Southeast Asian Games held in Manila, Jacobs was tasked to retain the country's gold medal in Men's Basketball. Noting the lack of competition, Jacobs decided to appoint De La Salle University head coach Pilo Pumaren as coach for the Philippine team, made up of players from the still amateur Manila Industrial and Commercial Athletic Association. The team successfully retained the gold medal.

In 1982, Jacobs mentored the Philippines' national under-19 basketball team, to the Asian Basketball Confederation Juniors Championship in his first official tournament as head coach for the Philippines' teams. The team included players such as Leo Austria, Jong Uichico, Hector Calma, Louie Brill and Samboy Lim. The team beat China in the final at the Araneta Coliseum in Manila. However, even as Jacobs went about developing local talents, the players were still deemed "raw".

In 1983, owing to the lack of tall players on the new team, Jacobs brought back Jeff Moore and Dennis Still from the original team, and included a new player in Arthur "Chip" Engelland. The new national pool was composed of the three naturalized players and amateur Filipino stalwarts. This program, along with the creation of the Philippine Amateur Basketball League (PABL), sought to keep the amateur stars from joining the professional Philippine Basketball Association and keep the Philippines competitive in FIBA basketball tournaments. The players on the team were eventually allowed to turn pro when they had finished their stint with the team.

In 1984, Eduardo Cojuangco had become the chairman of San Miguel Corporation, and continued to support the new program. During this time, Jacobs selected players from the pool to compete in the Philippine Basketball Association. Jacobs retained Jeff Moore and Dennis Still from the first NCC team, and Hector Calma, Louie Brill and Samboy Lim from the Philippine under-19 team. The team now included American shooting maestro Arthur Engelland and Filipino hotshot Allan Caidic, who joined the team in 1983.

The team, known as the all-amateur Northern Consolidated Cement (NCC) guest team, competed in the 1984 and 1985 PBA seasons and eventually won the 1985 PBA Reinforced Conference championship. As the champion of the pro league, the team went on to represent the Philippines and captured the 1984 ABC Club Championship, as well as the 1985 William Jones Cup championship, under the name "San Miguel Beer". Because of their win at the Asian Club Championship, the team represented the Asian region at the 1985 World Cup for Champion Clubs at Girona, Spain as "Northern Consolidated Cement".^[1]

In 1985, the members of the Northern Consolidated Cement team played for the country's national basketball team. The NCC-powered national team won the 1985 Southeast Asian Games basketball tournament and the Asian Basketball Confederation Championship on January 5, 1986 at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, tournament which the country had not won since 1973. In winning the ABC Championship, the team qualified for the 1986 World Basketball Championship in Madrid, Spain and the 1986 Goodwill Games. At this time, Jacobs mapped out a new plan to ensure continuity in the national team program. New local players such as Benjie Paras, Alvin Patrimonio, Jerry Codiñera were already being eyed to replace the aging Still and Moore. Engelland, on the other hand, was already honing the shooting skills of Allan Caidic, Naning Valenciano and Pido Jarencio. Amateur star Jojo Lastimosa was expected to fill Engelland's slot on the team in the future (Engelland eventually became the shooting coach of the San Antonio Spurs). However, the NCC program was disbanded, due to the political crisis that led to the Philippine People Power Revolution. The team was forced to withdraw from the World Championship.

Post-NCC Era

After the fall of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986, the NCC national team program was scrapped by the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP), which was the national basketball governing body of the country at that time. The players of the NCC went on to play for the Philippine Basketball Association, with most of them ending up in Cojuangco's San Miguel Beer team. Some of the NCC players would again see action for the national team at the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing, China, which copped a silver medal.

In 1994, San Miguel Beermen (the same franchise), coached by former PBA import Norman Black, won the 1994 PBA All-Filipino Cup championship and earned the right to represent the country in the up coming Asian Games, held at Hiroshima, Japan. The national team was composed of the San Miguel players (the core of the team), loan PBA players (notably Alvin Patrimonio from Purefoods and Johnny Abarrientos from Alaska) and amateur standouts (notably Marlou Aquino from the Philippine Basketball League, which was the former PABL established during the NCC period). The team, led by NCC veterans Allan Caidic and Hector Calma, went on to finished fourth with Caidic finishing as the Asian Games basketball tournament top scorer.

List of players

Peter Aguilar Teddy Alfarero Alfie Almario Michael Antoine Louie Brill Ricardo Brown Allan Caidic Hector Calma Jerry Codiñera Rey Cuenco Eddie Joe Chavez Yves Dignadice Arthur "Chip" Engelland Benjie Gutierrez Frankie Lim Avelino "Samboy" Lim Steve Lingerfelter

Alfredo "Pido" Jarencio Jeffrey "Jeff" Moore Willie Pearson Willie Polk Franz Pumaren Bong Ramos Elmer Reyes Steve Schall Alfonso "Al" Solis Dennis Still Leoncio "Jun" Tan, Jr. Jong Uichico Ludovico "Naning" Valenciano Bruce Webster Jayvee Yango Antonio "Tonichi" Yturri

PBA Era

San Miguel Corporation
Leagues	Philippine Basketball Association
Founded	2005
History	San Miguel Beer 2005–2007 San Miguel-Magnolia 2005–2007 San Mig Coffee 2005–2007 Purefoods Carne Norte Supremo 2005–2007
Arena	(none)
Location	Philippines
Team colors	Blue, white and red
President	Manuel V. Pangilinan
Head coach	Chot Reyes
Championships	2005 Brunei Cup 2006 Brunei Cup
Website	http://www.sanmiguel.com.ph
Uniforms
Home Away

Road to Beijing, 2008

2005

PBA appointed Vincent "Chot" Reyes to form an all-professional national team, supported and funded by the San Miguel Corporation of Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco, to represent the country in future international events. San Miguel – Team Pilipinas, as the team is called, went on to represent the country in the FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2005 (finished Fifth), the Las Vegas Global Hoop Summit (most exciting performing team), the William Jones Cup (finished Third), and the 2005 Shell Rimula-Sultan Cup of Brunei (Champion). The team was bannered by Asi Taulava, Rommel Adducul, and Ren-Ren Ritualo. Unfortunately, the Philippines was suspended by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) due to political conflict between leaders of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) and the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP).

2006

San Miguel – Team Pilipinas finished sixth in the William Jones Cup and fourth in the Al-Emadi International Basketball Tournament, held at Doha, Qatar. The team is has recently played in a goodwill series against Lebanon and won the Shell Rimula-Sultan Cup title in Brunei for the second year in a row.

2007

After the FIBA suspension was lifted in February 2007, the team went to an intensive training in the United States training camp that was attended before by NBA players. During the said training trip, they also played some tune up games with some NCAA teams.

Next stop for San Miguel – Team Pilipinas was the FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2007 held in Terhan, Iran. They played mostly against Arab teams that have two imports while they played without an import. After playing 8 games in 8 days, they finished 4th place in the tourney, a creditable showing as all the other teams played with imports.

List of Players

Pos. No. Player School SG 4 Mark Caguioa Glendale SF 5 Danny Seigle Wagner PG 6 Jimmy Alapag CSU San Bernardino SG 7 Dondon Hontiveros University of Cebu C 8 Asi Taulava BYU–Hawaii PF/C 9 Ranidel de Ocampo St. Francis of Assisi PF 10 Enrico Villanueva Ateneo de Manila PF/C 11 Mick Pennisi Eastern Michigan PF 12 Kerby Raymundo San Juan de Letran PG 13 Jayjay Helterbrand Kentucky State SG 14 Ren-Ren Ritualo De La Salle PF 15 Tony dela Cruz UC Irvine

Pos. No. Player School PF/C RL Rommel Adducul San Sebsatian PF RL Rudy Hatfield UM–Dearborn PF/C IL Rafi Reavis Coppin State SF RL Niño Canaleta UE SF RL Kelly Williams Oakland SG RL Gabe Norwood George Mason Position Name/s Head coach:  Chot Reyes Assistants: Aboy Castro, Nash Racela Consultants: Scout: Tim Cone, Norman Black, Jong Uichico Binky Favis Manager: Robert Non IL= Injured list RL= Reserve list San Miguel

PBA season-by-season records

Legend
Champion       Runner-up       Semifinalist

Season	Conference	Team name	Overall record			Finals
			W	L	%
1984	First All-Filipino Cup	Northern Cement	39	14	.625
	Second All-Filipino Cup
	Invitational Conference
1985	Open Conference		33	22	.600
	All-Filipino Cup
	Reinforced Conference					Northern Cement 4, Manila Beer 0
Overall record			72	36	.667	1 championship

See also

• Philippines men's national basketball team
• San Miguel Beermen

References

1. ^ XVII Intercontinental Cup – Girona/Barcelona 1985

External links

• The NCC Basketball Team
• Northern Cement Corp.