Roi Sumang and Boyzie Zamar: UE’s Mr. Clutch and Mr. Quote
It's late in the game against NU. UE's Roi Sumang has the ball. The Red Warriors lead 64-63 with under three minutes to go.
A few feet in front of him, lurking by the three point line, the physical freak known as Ray Ray Parks, is stalking him warily.
Sumang refuses to venture near, and lets the shot clock wind down to under ten seconds. How calm is he? He even dries his palms on the soles of his shoes. Twice.
And then, even though he's several feet clear of the arc, Sumang lets fly. The ball is a perfect swish, and the UE gallery erupts in joy.
And then Sumang does something even more amazing. He does it again. Only this time, there's even more on the line.
With the game knotted at 67-67 UE has the ball with 21.4 seconds to go. It's deja vu all over again as once again, Sumang is entrusted with the leather. NU refuse to approach him once again.
No palm-drying this time, but Sumang pulls the trigger, once again from the parking lot. And once more the ball swishes, and half of the Araneta Coliseum is whipped into a red-and-white lather. Sumang is fouled on the play and he converts the and-one.
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“Shades of Paul Lee!” boomed game announcer Rolly Manlapaz. Sumang rushes over to Lee, the former Warrior watching at courtside in a red-and-white striped shirt, and they celebrate.
Minutes later, UE put the finishing touches on their 71-67 win.
“Hiningi ko kay coach yung last shot” said Sumang after. “Sawang-sawa na ako matalo.”
Astonishing fact: Sumang had misfired on all three of his attempts from three point range before he buried those two impossibly long treys. And yet he still had the temerity/guts/nerve/confidence to ask for the winning shot when it counted the most.
Sumang led all scorers with nineteen points on 7-of-18 shooting, six rebounds, two assists, and three turnovers.
But UE's amazing day wasn't over just yet. Just when we thought Sumang was the toast of the UE town, he was almost upstaged. By his coach.
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The first hint that Boyzie is a coach who moves to the beat of a different drummer was when I saw video of him from last season, when the Warriors upset Ateneo with a last-second game-winner. He was speaking to his team in the huddle before that decisive shot and betrayed a surprising calm for such a tense moment.
“Ito ang pinaka-masarap laruin,” said Zamar of the clutch situation. I remember him saying that it was all about the heart, and that he even actually drew a heart on his whiteboard.
In the press conference against NU Boyzie Zamar was just as playful. The mentor played the role of the anti-Gregg Popovich, serving up a season's worth of quotable quotes to a waiting media that lapped it all up.
“When you travel, you travel light. And that's a big lesson for us. Roi Sumang brought the right baggage, and that was his biggest heart.”
Zamar also spoke about Charles Mammie, who finished with fifteen points, twenty rebounds, three dishes and three blocks. But it wasn't his stats that were the topic of conversation, but Mammie's wrong kind of baggage, his oft-reported attitudinal issues.
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“He doesn't have an ego, he has many egos” said Zamar. “I deal with him every day, every game, every half, every quarter.”
“Totoo yan” chimed in Sumang.
“Nauubusan ako ng pabrika ng pasensya” said the coach. “Hindi ko alam kung anung diskarte and gagawin ko sa kanya Western style, Asian style, Pinoy style.”
I asked Zamar about what UE did to corral Ray Ray Parks, who had a forgettable day, scoring eleven points on three-for-sixteen shooting, including flubs on all three points from three-point range.
“Gang-defending” he said. “Hindi yung Gangnam Style ha.”
Sumang had some choice quotes too. When asked why he didn't feel fear or nerves when he took the big shots, he said “siguro dahil lumaki ako sa Tondo.”
Coach Boyzie added that his charge was used to playing barefoot in the hardscrabble neighborhood, which happens to be the same place where Paul Lee grew up.
“Siya talaga ang inspirasyon ko para maging UE Red Warrior” confessed Sumang.
After the press conference concluded Zamar went around the media room and personally thanked and shook the hand of many of us in the press corps.
I'd like to say that it's the first time I had seen that in all my years of being a sportswriter, but since I've only been writing sports since 2012, I can't.
UE are now 1-1. They have a rebounding vacuum cleaner in Charles Mammie and a clutch shooter in Roi Sumang. Amd with a quirky but proven coach enjoying a second stint with UE, who knows how far they can go this season?
Follow Bob on Twitter @bhobg333.
