Cagulangan: UP hoops hero remembers Oro teammates

HIS place in UAAP history already secured, the newly-crowned UP Maroons’ finals game hero Joel Diomar ‘JD’ Cagulangan humbly looked back and acknowledged his former mentor that was largely instrumental in bringing him to where he is now.

“Coach thankful kaayo ko sa inyo. Dili nako ni maabot kon wala ko ninyo gitabangan. Salamat kaayo sa tanan,” JD texted Paul Andrew ‘Andy’ Calingin, his former mentor in Cagayan de Oro City during his equally-fruitful years in elementary with the Corpus Christi Grade School.

While the 21-year-old Cagulangan’s heroics ended the UP’s 36-year title drought on one memorable Friday the 13th in May, his step-back triple that gave the Fighting Maroons of Diliman a 72-69 overtime triumph in Game 3 of the Season 84 Finals over the three-time defending champion Ateneo Blue Eagles, he also readily dedicated to a fallen comrade.

“Yes, I know. That winning basket was also for Pao-pao. And it’s very comforting that he never forgot their friendship on and off the courts,” agreed Andy, in remembering his late varsity son Paulo Antonio Ceasar ‘Pao-pao’ Calingin.

Pao-pao was also 21 when he died last year after a week-long battle with arteriovenous malformation (AVM) in his brain.

Together, the two of them spearheaded the Corpus Christi Baby Knights-powered Northern Mindanao team’s first-ever gold finish in the 2013 Palarong Pambansa basketball in Dumaguete City.

A feat that was only accomplished after 65 long years, since the national students meet, governed and organized by the Department of Education, started in 1948.

“Cagayan de Oro needed just the arrival of a little kid from Butuan we fondly called with his nickname ‘Mai-mai’ to end Northern Mindanao’s nearly seven-decade misery in Palaro basketball,” then said Calingin’s bench assistant Carlomagno Dagalea.

Coach Calingin said that Cagulangan used to score 40 to 50 points in the small basketeers’ league in Butuan that caught up the fire, leading to his recruitment for the Corpus Christi team that finally untangled the trapping defense of its main rival in Cagayan de Oro ― the Sacred Heart of Jesus Montessori School ― owing to JD’s dribbling skills.

Later on, their Palaro dominance had catapulted the guards tandem of Cagulangan and Calingin to make the cut of the La Salle Green Hills junior squad in Manila.

While Pao-pao refused to endure the tough grind and the hard time with La Salle’s Team B that saw him rejoin the Corpus Christi Knights, JD managed to persevere and went on to become NCAA Junior Finals MVP.

But it was a different case in his senior years where Cagulangan languished on the La Salle bench. Enough to convince him to have a change of heart and wear instead the maroon jersey for the better of his career development.

Along with the UAAP’s Northern Mindanao hoop fans, the former National Basketball Conference coach Calingin swore that what Cagulangan did in the UAAP championship is indeed one for the books.

“He was like Michael Jordan in crucial plays of the overtime period. In over one minute remaining, Mai-mai grabbed a rebound and went outside for a quick fade-away jumper for a trey. Then, his pinpoint pass to their center had tied the score, followed by another three-point dagger from him at the expense of Ateneo’s tough defense,” Calingin said.

“Those moments in UAAP basketball will not be forgotten until we die. Mai-mai capped it off with a perfect Jordanism. It seems Pao-pao had a hand from above in helping his court buddy convert all those Hail Mary baskets,” added Calingin in jest.