NINETY-FIVE hopefuls beat the deadline for application for the PBA Rookie Draft Wednesday night and one name stood out — and not for reasons usually reserved for the one who will be selected first overall.

There are no outstanding names in the pool, outstanding in the sense that he is no 7-footer like Greg Slaughter last year or Marlou Aquino in the mid-1990s when Ginebra San Miguel made him its franchise player.

Guards will dominate most of the places in the first round, with Fil-Americans Stanley Pringle and Chris Banchero and homegrown former Letran ace Kevin Alas likely to dispute the distinction of being this season’s No. 1.

Certainly, whoever gets selected will never earn the acclaim that he is the hands-down No. 1 — no offense to whoever it may be. But the simple fact of the matter is that this pool will not be as deep as the others before, unless either Banchero or Pringle turn out to be Ricardo Brown.

One name also did not escape the attention of the discerning members of the media, who went through each and every aspirant to be able to determine how talented this batch is.

Manny Pacquiao, the eight-division world boxing champion, the Saranggani representative in Congress and very successful product endorser, is also included in the list of aspirants and seems to be hell-bent on playing in the PBA.

At 36 years old, Pacquiao is the oldest in the field, and at 5-foot-6, is easily the shortest.

Most of all — safe to say — he has the least basketball experience, because we all know that he spent most of his life trying to become — and succeeding to being — great atop the boxing ring where he brought the Philippines back to world consciousness.

And unlike every other marginal player in the pool, Pacquiao — if he does have marginal skills to make it in the PBA — will surely get drafted because he has inked a deal with newcomer KIA to become its playing-coach.

By being drafted and eventually being inked to contracts both as player and coach, Pacquiao effectively is denying one bonafide — and deserving — basketball player of the chance to play in the PBA.

And for going through with it, I dare say again, that it speaks softly of how serious KIA Motors is of being competitive in the league Filipinos have loved for the last 39 years.

That KIA is in the PBA simply to market its product is a given, but management still owes it to the league and the fans to come up with a team that will be able to compete.

It must make sure that it is in the PBA to uphold the highest level of sportsmanship that it can come up with, and part of that is making sure that it is serious in what it is doing and not being there just to be able to advertise.

But then again, KIA must be a firm believer in the old adage that good or bad, publicity is still publicity.

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Sonny Jaworski, Norman Black and Ramon Fernandez have had stabs at being playing coaches in the PBA and have earned great success.

Jaworski is the most successful among them, piloting Ginebra San Miguel to several championships under his watch, with two of his greatest triumphs coming against Purefoods and Shell Rimula-X.

I will never forget those days when Jaworski called the shots for Ginebra, the undisputed darling of the masses that defied all odds to win.

Ginebra never had the high-priced roster that other teams had. It never really had the young superstars that the other teams were built on.

I vividly remember the late Pinggoy Pengson, then doing the game for Vintage Enterprises when Ginebra finally broke through under Jaworski in the All-Filipino Finals.

Purefoods unveiled a hell of a team that was built around several former national team standouts led by Jojo Lastimosa, Jerry Codinera, Nelson Asaytono. Glenn Capacio and Dindo Pumaren and entered the All-Filipino Finals right in its maiden season in the league.

What made that championship conquest memorable for me was Pengson’s colourful call of the game, especially in the waning seconds when Jaworski was on the free throw line and was putting the finishing touches of Ginebra’s title run.

“This team, built around spit, guts and Jaworski pride….,” Pingson said before Jaworski was about to take two free throws, sent shivers up my spine even if I grew up being a Ramon Fernandez fan.

That’s what playing coaches should go through. They should have labored hard in the sport as players first — and proving themselves worthy — before being asked to play and coach his peers.

Like I said before, I am no Pacquiao hater, but playing in the PBA and coaching are different animals which even his vaunted fists won’t be able to tame.

No left hook or right straight or even a nine-punch combination which is possible because of his hand speed in the ring can stop the debacle awaiting him and KIA in the PBA.

Pacquiao and KIA are in for a knockout that will be uglier than what the legendary pugilist suffered at the hands of Juan Manuel Marquez in the fourth match of their series.

And that is a bet I am willing to make.