UST relies on prayers

MANILA, Philippines - Whether UST senior men’s basketball team coach Pido Jarencio was joking or not, there’s reason to believe that the Growling Tigers owe their early success in the UAAP season to a strong faith. UST, after all, is a pontifical university and one of the world’s largest Catholic educational institutions in terms of enrolment on one campus.

Jarencio, who took over the Tigers reins from Nel Parado in 2006-07 and piloted UST to the championship as a rookie coach, said in the offseason, the varsity didn’t train overseas unlike other teams.

 “We went to San Fernando, La Union, not San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles, for team bonding,” said Jarencio. “We were together for three days and two nights. We went to Mass at the Baguio Cathedral and on the way back to Manila, prayed at Manaoag. Baka makuha sa dasal. We didn’t play any games during our trip. It was just an outing for us to know each other better because we’re bringing in eight rookies.”

Jarencio said he couldn’t be happier with the way UST played in the offseason, winning the MBL championship and defeating La Salle and San Sebastian in the FilOil league. He’s not making any promises as to how far UST will go. “What I can guarantee is we’ll always be ready to win,” vowed Jarencio. “We’ll take things one game at a time. After the first round, we’ll evaluate our performance and make adjustments. We want to win more games than last year then we’ll take it from there.”

Last season, UST wound up seventh with a 4-10 record.  At the moment, the Tigers are 2-0, just two wins away from duplicating their win total the previous campaign with 12 games to go. UST upset NU, 73-72, in overtime for its first victory then trounced UE, 70-63, last Sunday.

Jarencio said he will also resort to prayer in trying to enlist ex-pro Alvin Teng’s son Jeron for next season. Jeron’s older brother Jeric plays for the Tigers. Early this year, Jeron collected 104 points and 24 rebounds in 35 minutes as he powered Xavier to a 164-74 decision over Grace Christian in the Tiong Lian high school league. Jeron was in the Philippines’ four-man team that competed at the first Youth Olympics in Singapore last year.

“If Jeron joins us, it will be a blessing,” said Jarencio. “If not, we’ll still be competitive because we’re getting back Clark Bautista and Aljun Mariano. We won’t stand in Jeron’s way if he gets a better opportunity to improve his skills with another school. But we’re certainly interested to recruit him.”

During the offseason, Ateneo spent three weeks with Joe Abunassar in Las Vegas and La Salle worked out in Chicago under Michael Jordan’s conditioning coach Tim Grover. NU played four exhibition games in Korea with coach Eric Altamirano saying the objective was more learning than winning even as the Bulldogs picked up two triumphs. UE participated in the eighth Asian University Championships in Sarawak, Malaysia, and took third place. FEU bonded in Singapore where the Tamaraws logged two games during a five-day tour.

Adamson coach Leo Austria said the Falcons stayed home in the summer.  “Our offseason training gave us a lot of confidence and we’re slowly maturing even though we didn’t go abroad,” added Austria.  Adamson’s newcomers are 6-3 Genesis Manuel, 6-2 Harry Petilos and 6-1 Mike Agustin. Austria listed his “dependable” veterans as 5-8 Lester Alvarez, 6-1 Alex Nuyles, 5-8 Jerick Canada, 6-3 Eric Camson, 6-6 Austin Manyara of Kenya, 6-3 Janus Lozada and 6-3 Jan Colina.

Altamirano said he aims to build a championship contender with more experience within the next two years. “We’re looking beyond this year,” he intimated. “Next season, NU will be hosting the UAAP and by March, the new Mall of Asia stadium will be ready for use. Mr. Hans Sy has already hired an event planner for the UAAP opening ceremonies. We intend to be a contender by then. It’s not added pressure on us. I like pressure. I put pressure on myself to get to the next level. I welcome the challenge.”

Altamirano’s emphasis in the maturing process is defense. “We’ll create offensive opportunities out of our defense,” he said. 

Clearly, the road to the throne won’t be easy for any team this season. “It’s going to be tough,” said defending back-to-back-to-back champion Ateneo coach Norman Black. “Adamson is virtually intact, they’re hungry and well-coached,” he said. “FEU is dangerous with last season’s MVP R. R. Garcia. We lost to La Salle twice in the preseason and they’re back with their pressing defense and rookies who give them size. NU has Bobby Ray Parks who has loads of talent and is mature beyond his years. Then, there’s UST. On paper, the teams likely to contend for the title are FEU, Adamson, NU, Ateneo and La Salle, not necessarily in that order. But you can’t count out UST, UE and UP. All the teams have rebuilt. It’s really hard to say which team is the favorite.”