Three seasons after and we are now in the 73rd season of the UAAP. The Tigers weren’t able to defend their title in Season 70, but at least were able to enter the final four at least. Season 71 and 72 also saw the Tigers’ continuous struggle to find that spark, that magic which was evident during their Season 69 campaign and helped them win the championship. Ever since Jojo Duncil, Jervy Cruz, Allan Evangelista, and the rest of the championship squad started graduating, it became even harder.
From being the defending champions, the Tigers are back to being the underdogs again in season 73. With Dylan Ababou and Khasim Mirza graduating, the only veterans and more experienced players left for UST, coach Pido has his hands full in strategizing how he will be able to steer UST to a good performance at least, and not be pushovers. Critics have been placing UST at the 8th spot during pre-season reviews, considering the hole that will be left by their veterans and their absence during pre-season tournaments. Even though Jeric Teng, last season’s Rookie of the Year, is still with the team, as well as Clark Bautista, Jeric Fortuna, and Chris Camus, it still wouldn’t fill up the void left in the team, though they could still give hope to UST.UST is undoubtedly undersized compared to other teams, but it doesn’t stop the squad from getting to their goal to make it to the final four at least. This wasn’t a bad blow on the squad either, and everyone, including the Thomasian hopefuls, just had to wait and see what UST has to offer for this season of the UAAP.
Surprisingly, UST won their first game against UE which was placed at least at one of the final four spots for this season. Everyone suddenly had their eyes on UST as contenders for this season.
During the post game interview for the UST-UE match, coach Pido jokingly said that the no.8 is lucky, especially for the Chinese, and also said that if you’re at the bottom, there’s no other way to go but up, which is proving to be true. UST lost its second game to Ateneo, but only because of failure to finish strong and not because they just cannot match Ateneo’s team. UST won their next game against UP, where their expertise in 3-point shooting was revealed, and Jeric Fortuna was named hero of the game. They shot 16 three pointers during this game, and also 16 three pointers against Adamson in their next game in a losing effort, which made them the no.1 team in terms of 3-point field goals.
Jeric Teng showed why he won ROY last season during the game against Adamson having a 50% shooting percentage from the 3-point area. Adamson was still able to get away with a win against UST but did not do so easily. UST had a tough competition in NU because of the latter’s strong force on the center in Mbe, and their more experienced players. But UST wasn’t afraid of anything. They were able to contain Mbe and were able to pull away with a shaky win. It wasn’t as good as their other games but still, a win’s a win. UST lost once again last Sunday against the Green Archers.
Looking back, their game against the Green Archers was really bad. They were not making their shots, and they were being plagued by their turnovers once again. Probably they were not able to prepare too for Lasalle’s full court defense. I think Lasalle even registered a 17 point lead against UST. Luckily, UST’s 3-point shots courtesy of Clark Bautista started going down the drain in the fourth quarter, minimizing Lasalle’s lead to just 4. But it could have been too little too late for the Tigers as the Archers still pulled away with a win, dropping UST to a 3-3 win-loss record and placing them at fourth in the standings.
With the way UST played against Lasalle and NU, hopefully they’ll get their groove back before the game this Saturday against FEU. It will be their last game for the first round, and it will be the hardest and the most challenging game for the Tigers considering that FEU hasn’t lost a game yet, and considering their very experienced players compared to UST’s young team. But UST won’t go down without a fight, they haven’t lost a game without the crowd seeing them fight back. They just have to recover, forget their last games and prepare for this big game, and correct the errors that have been haunting them for the past games.
If they play well, like their games against UE, UP, Ateneo and Adamson, they just might have a chance with FEU, but they really have to work hard to be able to achieve it. Limit turnovers, get their shooting back, work on defense and they don’t even have to worry about the support of the Thomasian community behind them. Will they pull off a big surprise again? Who knows? Will they make it to the final four? Hopefully yes, but again, who knows. Win or lose, they have, have been, and will be making us proud. UST all the way; go Tigers!
Catch the UAAP live coverage on Studio 23 every Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, from 2pm to 6pm. Replays on Balls TV.
Next games (last games for Round1):
Thursday, August 5, 2010 @ Araneta Coliseum
2pm: UE vs. AdU
4pm: UP vs. ADMU
Saturday, August 7, 2010 @ The Arena, San Juan
2pm: NU vs. UP
4pm: FEU vs. UST
Sunday, August 8, 2010 @ Philsports Arena
2pm: DLSU vs. AdU
4pm: UE vs. ADMU
*Go USTe! :)*
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