Mark Caguioa
Mark Anthony Abaño Caguioa (born November 19, 1979 in San Juan, Metro Manila,Philippines) is a Filipino professional basketball player in the Philippine Basketball Association. He plays for the Barangay Ginebra Kings. Known by many as The Spark, he is also known, along with backcourt tandem Jayjay Helterbrand, as one-half of the so-called,The Fast and The Furious. He is one of the best players in league history that can easily score at will.
Collegiate career
Although born and raised in the Philippines, Caguioa spent his adolescent days in the United States and played collegiate ball at the Glendale Community College. He was named into the First Team All-Western State Conference honors in the 1999-2000 season.
Player Profile
In 2001, as a virtual unknown in the Philippine basketball scene, he was drafted by theBarangay Ginebra Kings as the third overall pick. Expectations were not high as Caguioa started as a role player and reliever to superstar but aging Vergel Meneses. However, after showing strong performances and leading the Kings to the 2001 All-Filipino finals, he became very popular. With his killer cross-overs, slashing drives to the basket, and penchant for making clutch plays, Caguioa earned the respect and admiration of the Filipino basketball fans. His exciting brand of play earned him the moniker "The Spark." At the end of the season, Caguioa was the third Ginebra player since Dondon Ampalayo in 1986 and Marlou Aquino in 1996 to win the Rookie of the Year award.
In the 2002 and 2003 seasons, Caguioa had good performances but the Kings were unable to get past the quarterfinals.
In the 2004-2005 season, Caguioa along with his comebacking partner Jayjay Helterbrand, formed a strong backcourt tandem, which ABC Sports later dubbed as the "The Fast and The Furious." Their tandem enabled Ginebra to win back-to-back championships. Caguioa also set his then career high during the season, scoring 43 points (he later eclipsed this by scoring 45 points) in Game 4 of the Philippine Cup Finals against the Talk 'N Text Phone Pals.
Caguioa had several chances to win the MVP plum but got the short end most of the time. Like for example, he was among the leading players in the 2004 Fiesta Conference and was also a strong candidate for the Philippine Cup Best Player, but lost in the media voting twice to fellow Barangay Ginebra Kings teammate Eric Menk. His "bad boy" image was apparently disliked by the media. During the 2004 PBA All-Star Game, his output of 36 points would have won him the All-Star MVP, but the PBA South All-Stars led by Asi Taulava and Jimmy Alapagstole the show.
In the 2006 Philippine Cup, Caguioa was still showing brilliance in his game earning him the Player of the Week honors thrice. He also led the league scoring at 24 points per game, and broke his previous career high by scoring 45 points despite a losing effort to Red Bull in the quarterfinals. He became the first guard ever to finished a single season as the league's leading scorer since Allan Caidic in 1995.
In the 2007 Philippine Cup, Caguioa averaged 24.7 per game in the 23 games he played. He also led the league in statistical points for the Best Player of the Conference Award. Caguioa piloted Ginebra to their seventh championship in franchise history by besting the San Miguel Beermen in a best-of-seven showdown by ending it in Game 6. During their series against Talk 'N Text in the semifinals, Caguioa scored 34, 31, 26, 35, and 31 points respectively. Mark Caguioa won the 2007 PBA Best Player of the Conference.
Caguioa again helped his team during the 2008 PBA Fiesta Conference by grabbing their eight championship. He also led the league in scoring.
There were also speculations that the Sydney Kings of the NBL in Australia was really impressed with his performance, and they offered him a contract to play for their team. But unfortunately, the NBL terminated the license of the Sydney Kings after the club’s ownership failed to remedy outstanding player payments outlined in a default notice issued to the club.
In the 2008-09 season, Caguioa failed to suit up for Kings due to his therapy in the United States for tendonitis on both knees.
PBA Career Statistics
| Legend | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | Games played | GS | Games started | MPG | Minutes per game |
| FG% | Field-goal percentage | 3P% | 3-point field-goal percentage | FT% | Free-throw percentage |
| RPG | Rebounds per game | APG | Assists per game | SPG | Steals per game |
| BPG | Blocks per game | PPG | Points per game | Bold | Career high |
Correct as of December 25, 2010
Regular Season
Year | Team | GP | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Ginebra | 52 | 26.2 | .467 | .422 | .870 | 4.9 | 1.8 | 1.0 | .1 | 13.8 |
| 2002 | Ginebra | 30 | 29.6 | .438 | .333 | .865 | 4.3 | 2.4 | .7 | .1 | 13.4 |
| 2003 | Ginebra | 41 | 35.6 | .421 | .329 | .750 | 6.1 | 2.8 | 1.1 | .1 | 17.4 |
| 2004-05 | Ginebra | 78 | 37.5 | .491 | .331 | .799 | 6.4 | 3.1 | 1.2 | .2 | 18.7 |
| 2005-06 | Ginebra | 48 | 37.7 | .418 | .258 | .741 | 5.8 | 2.6 | 1.0 | .2 | 20.6 |
| 2006-07 | Ginebra | 30 | 38.8 | .425 | .329 | .738 | 4.9 | 4.5 | .9 | .1 | 24.6 |
| 2007-08 | Ginebra | 39 | 32.2 | .486 | .304 | .648 | 4.3 | 2.3 | .8 | .1 | 19.9 |
| 2009-10 | Ginebra | 34 | 22.8 | .431 | .225 | .785 | 3.2 | 1.6 | .0 | .1 | 11.9 |
| 2010-11 | Ginebra | 16 | 26.2 | .403 | .326 | .846 | 5.4 | 2.0 | .5 | .1 | 14.1 |
| Career | 368 | 32.7 | .450 | .318 | .766 | 5.3 | 2.7 | 1.0 | .1 | 17.5 |
Player achievements
| Year | Team | Award |
|---|---|---|
| PBA | ||
| 2001 | Brgy. Ginebra Kings | Rookie of the Year |
| Mr. Quality Minutes | ||
| 2004-05 | Mythical Second Team | |
| 2005-06 | Mythical Second Team | |
| 2006-07 | Philippine Cup Best Player of the Conference | |
| 2007-08 | Mythical First Team | |
| FIBA | ||
| 2007 FIBA Asia | Philippine Team | Mythical Ten Selection |
| 2007 Jones Cup | Mythical Five Selection | |
National team
Caguioa was named in the RP Training Pool for future international competitions. He has participated in several exhibition games against theIranian National Team and the NBL team Sydney Kings in mid-2005, where he impressed the latter team's coach by scoring 27 points in the said game. [1] [2] He has also played in the 2005 FIBA-Asia Champions Cup held in the Philippines, in which they finished 5th in the event. He averaged 19.8 points per game and 3.4 rebound per game in the said tournament.
However, Caguioa was eventually left out of the team. It was due to national mentor Chot Reyes' claim that Caguioa has failed to appear in several practice sessions.
In 2007, he finally joined the RP Team that won the Southeast Asia Basketball Association Championship with a perfect record and finished 9th place with a record of 5-2 in the FIBA Asia Championship.
Controversy
- A mini-controversy happened in 2005 when he spoke a Filipino vulgar word during a live interview of a game between Caguioa's team against the Sta. Lucia Realtors. He did not receive any form of punishment from the PBA for his comments.
- Caguioa once had a rivalry with then-Sta. Lucia player Alex Cabagnot, who now plays for the San Miguel Beermen. It was mainly because Cabagnot broke Caguioa's scoring records at Eagle Rock High School. They had several episodes of commentaries regarding each other in interviews, and were seen trash talking in camera during their first two encounters. The rivalry apparently cooled off as Cabagnot failed to live up to everyone's expectations. [3]
- Aside from being left out of the national team, Caguioa was also sanctioned by the league for his failure to appear in the 2006 PBA All-Star Game held in Cagayan de Oro City. Through his agent Danny Espiritu, he said he was suffering from an injury and had to beg off from coming.
- Prior to the start of the 2006 Philippine Cup, Caguioa vowed to run naked (or half-naked) along the streets of Shaw Boulevard if the Kings failed to defend the title during a pre-tournament interview with ABC Sports. His team eventually lost the title, but he reneged on his earlier promise.
- On May 17, 2006, Caguioa was ejected during Ginebra's 99-88 defeat against the Coca-Cola Tigers for two technical fouls. The first technical happened after he vehemently complained a call against then-Tigers guard John Arigo. The second offense was for throwing the ball into the stands after a foul was called on him. The league also suspended Caguioa during their loss against Air21 on May 20.
- He was fined by former PBA Commissioner Noli Eala for failing to attend the 2006 PBA Annual Awards, where he was included in the Mythical Second team.
1 comments:
Watching Mark Caguioa in a court was very intense on a part of me. He is very smart and knowing his talent in basketball I admire him, the way he drive the ball then shot it very excellent that’s why he called "The Spark". Thanks for sharing this info and keep updating about him.
Nehv | PBA news
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