Mark Caguioa

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Mark Caguioa
Position Point Guard, Shooting Guard
Height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Weight 180 lb (82 kg)
League Philippine Basketball Association (PBA),
Team Barangay Ginebra Kings
Born November 19, 1979 (1979-11-19) (age 28)
San Juan, Metro Manila, Philippines
Nationality Filipino
College Glendale Comm. Coll., California
Draft 3rd overall, 2001
Barangay Ginebra Kings
Pro career 2001–present
Awards *Rookie of the Year (2001)

Mark Anthony Caguioa (born on November 19, 1979 in San Juan, Metro Manila, Philippines) is a Filipino professional basketball player in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). He plays for the Barangay Ginebra Kings, although he is currently on leave from the team due to his playing commitments to the Philippine national team. 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 and raised in the Philippines, Caguioa spent his adolescent days 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 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 Filipino basketball fans. His exciting brand of play earned him the monicker "The Spark". At the end of the season, Caguioa is the 3rd 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 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. He became the first guard ever to finished a single season as the league's leading scorer in the 21st Century (since Allan Caidic in 1995).

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.

He was healing with a shoulder injury after the FIBA-Asia Championship held at Tokushima where the team SMC-Pilipinas ranked 9th overall.

[edit] Awards and Records

  • 2001 Rookie of the Year
  • 2001 Mr. Quality Minutes
  • 2004 Mythical Second Team Member
  • 2005 Mythical Second Team Member
  • 2005 Statistical leader
  • 2007 Best Player of the Conference (All Filipino Cup)
  • 2007 Philippine National Team Member
  • 2007 PSA major awardee (professional basketball ranks)
  • 2007 FIBA Asia Club Championship Mythical Ten Selection
  • 2007 Member, PBA 5,000-point club

[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 Philippine national team that will compete in the Southeast Asia Basketball Association Championship and FIBA Asia Championship.

[edit] 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 didn't 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 Coca-Cola Tigers. 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. [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. Through his agent Danny Espiritu, he said he was then 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 sister team Coca-Cola Tigers for two technical fouls. The first technical happened after he vehemently complained a call against Tigers guard John Arigo. The second offense was for throwing the ball into the stands after a foul was called on him. The league suspended Caguioa during their loss against Air21 on May 20.
  • He was fined by PBA Commissioner Noli Eala for failing to attend 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.

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • PBL commissioner Chino Trinidad is his cousin.
  • He got his jersey number from the 47-point output he produced in an intramurals basketball game during his grade school days. It is also a combination of his father's favorite number (4) and Mark's own (7).
  • He is currently dating Australian/Filipina model Lauren Hudson.[citation needed]
  • He was scouted by the NBA team Toronto Raptors.
  • He was offered by Iran basketball team to play for ten million pesos as an import, But he declined the offer.[citation needed]

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Davonn Harp		 PBA Rookie of the Year
2001		 Succeeded by
Ren-Ren Ritualo