Newly-appointed head coach Jeffrey Cariaso is looking to change the Blackwater culture when it competes in the Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup.
Cariaso said he wants to assemble a solid group of players that can change the Bossing image from being a perennial doormat into a serious playoff contender.
“We want to change the culture,” Cariaso told Daily Tribune.
“We want to keep a good core of players who could help us in our desire to improve and contend.”
Cariaso, a grand slam winner at Alaska in 1996, said he is hoping that he can hold on to the pieces of the squad, which will give him an opportunity to prove himself as a coach and change the image of the Bossing.
Blackwater holds the second pick in the coming Annual Rookie Draft and Cariaso is hoping that they will select a player who can help them achieve their goal.
Over the past few years, the Bossing were able to release their top picks from the Rookie Draft, the last one was last year’s No. 1 overall pick Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser who was shipped to NLEX in a three-way trade that also involved TNT and netted them Troy Rosario.
With a veteran-laden roster led by Rosario, JVee Casio, Baser Amer and Yousef Taha and young players who had great upsides like Rey Suerte and Ato Ular, the Bossing will need their No. 2 pick that could become an essential piece to what could be the winning puzzle that Cariaso is building.
Blackwater will be picking second behind Terrafirma, but Cariaso will have a chance to snatch one of those top potentials that were included in the list of 128 applicants, the biggest in league history.
“Guys like (Stephen) Holt, (Schonny) Winston, (Xavier) Lucero, and (Luis) Villegas, I can safely assume are on everyone’s top list,” said Cariaso, the third coach of the Bossing in the last three years after Nash Racela and Ariel Vanguardia.
Prior to coaching Blackwater, he also briefly handled Ginebra, then returned to Alaska to serve as an assistant coach and eventually got promoted as head mentor until the franchise was acquired by Converge.
The FiberXers retained Cariaso for a conference until they hired Aldin Ayo.
Now at Blackwater, Cariaso is looking for a restart, starting with the draft.
“There were still a lot of promising players in the Draft Combine, among them include Ricci Rivero, Archie Concepcion, Inand Fornillos, Kenneth Tufflin and Troy Mallilin, to name a few,” Cariaso said.
