Louie Vigil has joined the 2017 PBA Draft but for some insane reason, his name isn’t on the final list of applicants. Maybe now you can see his name… but when the final list was initially introduced, I counted all the entries and it was only 43.
I mean… what gives?
It’s insane because I saw a Twitter feed of him chatting up with Mico Halili… on CNN Philippines.
They even had a good luck message for him!
Time to zero in on Louie Vigil.
In 66 elimination round games for the UST Growling Tigers, Louie Vigil averaged 8.0 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.6 assists with a 39.1 field goal clip. Now these averages aren’t that pretty especially since Renz Palma posted better career numbers, but if you consider that Vigil came in a time when the Tigers were in title contention and had the likes of Karim Abdul, Jeric Teng, Jeric Fortuna, Aljon Mariano, and Kevin Ferrer, then this is kinda good. Julian Sargent and Thomas Torres had worse scoring averages and we regard them as late first or early second round picks.
So why not Vigil?
Hmmm…
Now any UST Tiger ranks high in my list… but I don’t know if his creds could hang to make the first round. I know his PBA D-League resume is better than his UAAP seasons – playing for Lawrence Chongson’s Tanduay Light. During his last UAAP season, he almost didn’t make the squad. For some reason, UAAP wanted to format the players’ age limit. 2016 should have been his time in the spotlight. But then Vigil did play… and the Tigers were booted out of the Final Four. But to Vigil’s credit, he displayed the gameplay the UST hopefuls expect from him – averaging 14.9PPG, 4.9RPG, 2.9APG, and 0.8SPG in almost 27 minutes in Season 79.
And with that said…
I hope he ends up in Kia.
Hmmm?
Well, I don’t know how to say this but… I don’t know how the late second round picks would survive in the PBA. Hell, I don’t know if the second round picks would have significant playing time in the PBA! Phoenix has five picks in the first two rounds while Star and GlobalPort have three selections apiece. Aside from the twelfth pick of the first round, these are the picks that scream career death.
I know there’s a possibility that Kia would obtain at least TNT’s tenth or eleventh pick (why not both) but that would still leave the bottom dwellers with an extra rookie to insert on their damned basketball program.
Vigil is either a shooting guard or a small forward that could be a reliable lockdown defender since his offense isn’t as sought compared to Mariano and Ferrer. But the latter two players have a career in the PBA because of their defense… which makes Vigil a possibility if you think about it. And it’s not like Kia would mess up their state with the acquisition of the Tanduay player. Kia finished the season with Jackson Corpuz, Bong Galanza, and Philip Paniamogan edging out the likes of Gary David and Jeric Teng. I doubt if Kia would release the rights to draft Christian Standhardinger for a point guard because they have Reden Celda and LA Revilla doing their best to breathe the team a bit of life. If Kia is going to ask Vigil to score more, then like his final year in UST… he’s going to accept this whole-heartedly.
If this happens though, he needs to address his awful career 60 percent clip from the charity stripe as well as his insane 15 percent clip from the three-point line recorded during his final year.
Perhaps going under the radar is the best possibility for Vigil. He is the lone Tiger in the draft and I hope he ends up playing in the incoming PBA season.
Perhaps he’ll end up a la Aries Dimaunahan. Remember how big were his shots when he played for the Barangay Ginebra Kings during the mid-2000s? Maybe he can emulate the former UST Team B’s gameplay… although he needs to veer away from the Gins because he’ll probably end up glued to the bench there.
PROJECT SYDRIFIED WP 