Mark Caguioa
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| Position | Guard |
|---|---|
| Nickname | The Spark/Agent 47/ HIbachi Caguioa |
| League | Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) |
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.8 m) |
| Weight | 180 lb (82 kg) |
| Team | Barangay Ginebra Kings |
| Nationality |  Philippines |
| Born | November 19, 1979 San Juan, Metro Manila, Philippines |
| College | Glendale Comm. Coll., California |
| Draft | 3rd overall, 2001 Barangay Ginebra Kings |
| Pro career | 2001–present |
| Awards | Rookie of the Year (2001), PBA Mr. Quality Minutes (2001), PBA Mythical Second Team (2005), PBA Mythical Second Team (2006), PBA Scoring Champion: 2006 (20.6) |
Mark Caguioa (born on November 19, 1979 in San Juan, Metro Manila, Philippines) is a Filipino professional basketball player in the Philippine Basketball Association 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.
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[edit] Collegiate career
Although born in the Philippines, Caguioa grew up in the United States and played collegiate ball at the Glendale Community College in California. He was named into the First-Team All-Western State Conference honors in the 1999-2000 season.
[edit] PBA career
In 2001, as a virtual unknown in Philippine basketball scene, he was drafted by the Barangay Ginebra Kings as the 3rd overall pick. Expectations were not high as Caguioa started as role player and reliever to Vergel Meneses. However, after showing strong performances and leading the Kings to the All-Filipino finals, he became more popular earning him the monicker, "The Spark". At the end of the season, Caguioa is the 3rd Ginebra player since Dondon Ampalayo in 1989 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 the comebacking Jayjay Helterbrand, formed a strong backcourt tandem, which ABC Sports later dubbed as the "Fast and the Furious". Their tandem enabled Ginebra to win back-to-back championships. Caguioa also set his career high during this season, scoring 43 points in Game 4 of the Philippine Cup Finals against the Talk N Text Phone Pals.
Caguioa had 4 chances to become MVP:
- He was among the leading players for 2004 Fiesta Conference and Philippine Cup best player, but lost in the media voting twice to fellow Ginebra teammate Eric Menk. His "bad boy" image was apparently disliked by the media.
- His output of 36 points in the 2004 All-Star Game would have won him the All-Star MVP, but the South All-Stars led by Asi Taulava and Jimmy Alapag stole the show.
- Caguioa was also the statistical leader for season MVP in 2005 [1], but lost again to Eric Menk in the media voting.
In the 2006 Philippine Cup, Caguioa is still showing brilliance in his game earning Player of the Week honors thrice, becoming the league's leading scorer at 24 points a game, breaking his previous career high by scoring 45 pts despite losing to Red Bull in quarterfinals.
Currently, in the 2007 Philippine Cup, Caguioa is averaging 24.7 PPG in the 23 games he is currently playing in the said tournament. He also lead the league in Statistical Points for the Best Player of the Conference Awards. Ginebra is currently leading the series 3-2 in the best-of-seven semifinal series with the Talk N Text Phone Pals. During the series, Caguioa scored 34,31,26,35 and 31 pts. respectively with a 31.4 point clip. Mark Caguioa won the 2007 PBA Best Player of the Conference.
[edit] Awards
- PBA Rookie of the Year (2001)
- PBA Mr. Quality Minutes (2001)
- PBA Mythical Second Team (2005)
- PBA Mythical Second Team (2006)
- PBA 2006-07 Philippine Cup Best Player of the Conference
- PBA Scoring Champion: 2006 (20.6)
- PBA 7 time PBA All Star
- PBA 3 time PBA Champion
[edit] National team
Caguioa was named in the RP Training Pool for future international competitions. He has participated in several exhibition games against the Iranian National team and the NBL team Sydney Kings in mid-2005, where he impressed the latter team's coach by scoring 27 pts. in the said game.[2][3] He has also played in the 2005 FIBA-Asia Champions Cup held in the Philippines, in which they finished 5th in the event.
However, Caguioa was eventually left out of the team for the past few months. It was due to national mentor Chot Reyes' claim that Caguioa has failed to appear in several practice sessions.
He is currently a member of the national team that will compete in the Southeast Asia Basketball Association Championship and FIBA Asia Championship.
[edit] Controversial incidents
- 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 didn't receive any form of repercussions or fines from the league for his comments.
- A similar incident happened involving Caguioa and rookie Alex Cabagnot. 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 the latter failed to live up to the hype.[4]
- Aside from being left out of the national team, Caguioa was recently sanctioned by the league for his failure to appear in the 2006 All-Star Game held in Cagayan de Oro City. According to Caguioa, through his agent Danny Espiritu, 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 did lost but he did not fulfill this promise.
- On May 17, 2006, Caguioa was ejected during Ginebra's 99-88 defeat against sister team Coca Cola for two technical fouls. The first technical happened after complaining a call against Tigers' guard John Arigo. The second offense was for throwing the ball into the stands after a foul was called. The league suspended Caguioa during their loss against Air21 on May 20.
- He was fined by PBA Commisioner for not attending the 2006 PBA Annual Awards, where he was included in the Mythical Second team.
- Several newspapers wrote an article claiming that Caguioa is hated by the media in relation to his non-inclusion in the individual awards in the past.
It is said that while these controversies produce a bad image for Caguioa, he still ranked as one of the most popular players in the league and is among the most favorite of Ginebra fans. Some also argue that Caguioa is either liked or hated by fans and the media.
[edit] Trivia
- PBL commissioner Chino Trinidad is Caguioa's cousin.
- Caguioa got his jersey number from his output of 47 points during an intramurals game in his gradeschool days. It also is a combination of the favorite number of Mark (7) and his father's (4).
[edit] External links
- PBA.ph Player Profile
- Mark Caguioa's College Basketball Statistics
- ABS-CBN News: Pipol Episode profile on Mark Caguioa
- Mark Caguioa fan site
| Preceded by Davonn Harp |
PBA Rookie of the Year 2001 |
Succeeded by Ren-Ren Ritualo |
