Louie Alas

They also ended the eliminations with a 13–1 win–loss card which is their best record since 1950.

Francisco Luis "Louie" Alas (born October 10, 1963) is a Filipino basketball head coach.

He is the former head coach of the Letran Knights in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, and Philippine Patriots in the ASEAN Basketball League.

He made his coaching debut in the national team by assisting San Beda College High School coach Ato Badolato in the SEABA Jrs in 1996.

The team was led by Ren-Ren Ritualo and Aries Dimaunahan.

A year later, he was named coach of the youth team and formed a formidable lineup composed of future basketball stars like Kerby Raymundo, Enrico Villanueva, Cyrus Baguio, Yancy de Ocampo and others.

The team won the SEABA Championship and placed third in the ABC Juniors Championship.

He had started as an assistant coach for Purefoods Corned Beef Cowboys under Eric Altamirano from 1997 to 1998.

Later on, he transferred to the now-defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association.

Alas was supposed to handle another MBA team, the Batangas Blades when the PBA's Mobiline Phone Pals gave him an offer a chance to coach, and immediately took it.

Prior to this, Mobiline was struggling under Eric Altamirano who have been fired together with the whole coaching staff.

In 1998, Alas barged into NCAA territory with Letran.

He immediately captured that year's championship trophy by sweeping the San Sebastian Stags in a best-of-three series.

After his stint with the youth, he was tasked to coach the Philippines in the 1999 Southeast Asian Games in Brunei.

Majority of his players were from his MBA team, the Manila Metrostars because prior to the competition, the Metrostars were the top-seeded team in that season.

He led the Philippines to a gold medal by sweeping the whole tournament and beating Thailand in the Gold Medal Match.

He was also a former coach of Mobiline from 2000 to 2001 in the Philippine Basketball Association.

Alas' basketball career began in Adamson University in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines where he played for the school's team Adamson Falcons.

In the PABL, he played for ESQ, Purefoods, Philips Sardines and Burger Machine.

He also used to work in the Philippine Sports Commission.

His first coaching job was with the Saint Francis of Assisi Baby Doves in Las Piñas.

Afterwards, he moved to Las Piñas College.

For a time, Alas used to be an assistant coach in Adamson University.

While in the PBA, he led the Phone Pals to its best record in the elimination phase of the Governor's Cup in 2000 and 2001 but all ended up losing in the semis.

The Pop Cola Panthers was the first PBA team to offer him a coaching job but decided to stick with the Metrostars.

On December 3, 2001, Mobiline announced that Alas had stepped down as the team's head coach.

Alas was replaced by American Bill Bayno who immediately received heavy criticism from the nationalist Basketball Coaches Association of the Philippines due to his nationality.

However, before the 2002 season, Alas was fired from the team.

According to reports, Alas angered top Mobiline officials when he chose Gilbert Demape over John Arigo as the team's top rookie draft pick.

But he denied this allegation, saying that he had a series of meetings with the owners, and was given the freedom to decide on what he felt was best for the team.

In 2003, his Letran Knights will face the Stags again in the finals and once again he prevailed thanks to the heroics of Boyet Bautista, Aaron Aban and Jonathan Pinera.

Right after the title win, the Knights joined the Philippine Basketball League under the name of Toyota Otis-Letran.

The Knights captured the third-place trophy in the league's Unity Cup after beating defending champions Hapee Toothpaste Sparklers.

In 2005, he gave Letran its 16th NCAA Championship by beating the PCU Dolphins 2–1 in their epic championship series despite being down 0–1.

In the 2006 PBL Unity Cup, he led Toyota to its first finals appearance only to lose to the Harbour Centre Portmasters in the pivotal fifth game in their best-of-5 series.

In 2007, he suffered his very first NCAA championship loss in the hands of the San Beda Red Lions who swept them in two games.

during the championship series, basketball analysts were very aware of his coaching mystique that some believed he can pull off an upset against the mighty Red Lions.

In December 2007, he helped the Philippines win another gold medal in the 2007 Southeast Asian Games in Ratchaburi, Thailand.

This time though, he was an assistant coach to Junel Baculi.

Alas hails from the fishing town of Unisan, Quezon, and is the seventh of eight children.