MANILA, Philippines - The Sandugo-University Games is readying sanctions against University of the East, including suspension after its no-show in the men’s basketball finals in Bacolod over the weekend.
“There will be sanction and I will recommend suspension of the school,” Sandugo-UniGames president Roger Banzuela yesterday told The STAR.
The Warriors held off the Ateneo Eagles, 68-65, in the semis but left on the eve of the finals to honor a previous commitment in Chinese Taipei.
Banzuela, however, said they are still waiting for the response and explanation of the Recto-based school before making his recommendation to the Sandugo-UniGames board official.
“Of course, we will be waiting for UE’s explanation before we can make any recommendation, but definitely, there will be sanctions,” he said.
In a letter to Banzuela, UE apologized for the Warriors’ sudden pullout and cited the school’s previous commitment to play in the Asian University Basketball Federation (AUBF).
“It is with much regret that we had to leave the UniGames sooner than anticipated. This is due to our earlier commitment to the AUBF to represent not just UE but the entire country in the Asia-wide tournament,” said Dr. Jesus Tanchanco Jr., UE’s executive director for marketing and team manager of the Warriors.
He, however, said that they made several attempts to reach out to the UniGames officials in the hopes of reaching an agreement on the scheduling. “But we were unable to connect with anyone among the organizers, who were presumably busy overseeing the orderly conduct of the tournament.”
“But we apologized for this inadvertent turn of events, especially to the organizers and to everyone who may have felt let down in the process,” said Tanchanco.
UE, however, said it has no desire to contest the decision to be made by the UniGames organizers although “we do wish that the UE Red Warriors would be given the honor and privilege to participate in future UniGames.”
UE drew the ire of the meet’s organizers after failing to show up in the gold medal game that would have pitted the Warriors against the National U Bulldogs at the University of St. La Salle-Bacolod Gym.
Reports have it that UE left Saturday night, or a couple of hours after stunning five-peat UAAP champion Eagles in a semis match watched by an overflow crowd.
UE had reportedly informed the organizers of its plan to leave less than the 24 hours before the gold medal showdown.
The Warriors nipped the Adamson Falcons, 67-66, in the other semis match that was also put under protest by the Falcons.
To appease the basketball-hungry crowd, NU agreed to play a two-quarter, exhibition game with the University of Santo Tomas side with the Bulldogs scoring a 54-52 win.
The Eagles turned back the Falcons, 58-56, to clinch second place after the Warriors’ pullout. Adamson wound up third.