This is a team used to winning championships. Before San Beda started their renaissance in the last half of the last decade, the Golden Stags were the cream of the NCAA. Many PBA legends started their careers here, and they are but two years removed from their last title romp. Now San Sebastian is trying to get back into the championship picture with a lineup that still includes the core players from that 2009 championship run, and a venerable mentor who is making a return to big time college basketball.

Coach Arturo “Turo” Valenzona was one man partially responsible for the nearly half-decade long reign of the Golden Stags back in the 1990’s. His rosters then included guys who would go on to become All Stars in the pros: Rommel Adducul, Rodney Santos, and even Aramis “Banjo” Calpito. Valenzona has won at every level he has ever coached, and his coaching philosophy has been a topic of much discussion and reverence in Philippine coaching circles. His teams have always been tough, intense defensively, effective and efficient on offense. He has run the same basic offensive permutations the last four decades, and no one has ever figured out how to stop it.

Valenzona will be taking charge of a team still pretty long on talent and veteran guile but perhaps not as deep as he is used to. Anchoring the Golden Stags is still the wondrous Calvin Abueva. Abueva, who is generously listed at 6-foot-4, is built like a UFC light-heavyweight fighter. He’s a double-double machine who is relentless on both ends of the court, with a mischievous leer he wears almost all throughout the game. Abueva makes sure San Sebastian gets baskets when their offense is bogged down, or extra possessions when things are getting a little hairy.

Joining Abueva up front is 6-foot-7 center Ian Sangalang. Sangalang was once a member of the RP Youth Team, and was also once supposedly going to play for Far Eastern in the UAAP. Things took a different turn for his career though, and he’s now won one NCAA championship and the last PBL conference title. Sangalang is long and athletic and has underrated strength, able to get after long rebounds and block shots, or at least alter shots he does not block. Completing the Stags’ own version of a “Big 3” is 6-foot-3 swingman Ronald Pascual. Pascual is an even better athlete than Abueva, and can play up to four positions. He can handle like a pointguard, score like an off-guard, drive like a small forward and rebound like a power forward anytime he has to. He can nail a three-pointer as easily as he can complete a two-handed alley-hoop dunk, and he can defend any perimeter player with his speed and size.

Rounding out the roster are three newcomers of some note: 5-foot-7 pointguard Lyle Antipuesto, 6-foot-1 swingman Gino Juamo-as and 6-foot-5 center Michael Miranda. Antipuesto came from the Cavite campus of San Sebastian, and was a part of the Bay Cats’ last NAASCU title team. Juamo-as is a product of San Sebastian’s high school program. Miranda brings some added toughness off both boards and some scoring in the lane.

Speaking of the high school, things are still touch-go for Coach Raymond Valenzona, without a clear superstar this season.