1981 Toyota Super Diesels season

The 1981 Toyota Super Diesels season was the seventh season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).

Colors

For the Open Conference:
          (dark)
          (light)
For the Reinforced All-Filipino:
               (dark)
               (light)

Awards

Andrew Fields became the first recipient of the PBA Best Import Award when he powered Toyota to the Open Conference championship.

Summary

The Toyota Tamaraws finished as runners-up in all three conferences in 1980. They started their new season with a brand new moniker, "Super Diesels", and Edgardo Ocampo as their new coach. The Super Diesels lost to Crispa, 97-112, in the opening day on March 8. ^[1] Import Andrew Fields is in his third year of duty, teaming up with Melton Wertz for four games before Wertz was replaced by Victor King. The Super Diesels had to win their last game in the eliminations against Finance Funders to enter the semifinal round and avoid any possible ties for a playoff with either Tefilin or CDCP. In the semifinal round, Toyota won their first two outings over U-Tex and San Miguel, then lost to Crispa a day after the passing of their former coach Fort Acuña. The Super Diesels finished with an impressive 5-win, 1-loss slate in the semifinals and went on to play Crispa Redmanizers in the championship series for the second straight conference and the tenth time these two arch rivals met in the finals.

Toyota won the series opener but lost the next two games and trailed 1-2 against Crispa in the series and on a verge of another disappointing finish. The Super Diesels won big in Game four to forced a deciding match. On July 25, with a huge turnout of fans on hand to witness the final game of the series to be officiated by two NBA referees; Jim Capers and Lee Jones. Toyota won over Crispa, 103-97. Andrew Fields' three-point play in the last one minute and twenty seconds of the game turned out to be the winning basket for the Super Diesels. Center Ramon Fernandez was the top local scorer for his team, averaging 23 points per game and posting his highest output in Game two with 29 big points and tallying 20 points in Game five.

With the handicap ruling, the Super Diesels had an option to get an import no taller than 6-1 for the Reinforced Filipino Conference. Toyota had the smallest of imports in 6-0 Archie Talley. Toyota and Crispa once again shared top spot in the elimination phase with seven wins and two losses. In the round of six, the Super Diesels lost their first two matches against the Redmanizers, 110-111, ^[2] and U-Tex Wranglers, 121-125, and were booted out of contention by Yco-Tanduay after suffering their third loss in four games at the hands of the Esquires. It marks the first time in seven seasons and 20 conferences that Toyota failed to advance into the semifinal round.

Occurrences

After back-to-back wins at the start of the semifinal round in the Open Conference, the Toyota Super Diesels went down to its first setback as they bowed to Crispa, 118-133 on July 7. The Super Diesels were seemingly affected by the shocking news a day earlier upon learning the death of their former mentor Fort Acuña. The team showed up in their red uniforms with a piece of black cloth attached to their jerseys as a sign of mourning to the demise of their former coach.

Roster

References