San Beda coach downplays 'favorite' status

MANILA, Philippines – San Beda is being tipped as the heavy favorite to beat Letran in their best-of-three title duel for the 91st NCAA title starting Friday at the MOA Arena in Pasay City. Lions coach Jamike Jarin disagrees.

"It's anybody's game," said Jarin, moments after the reigning five-peat champion trounced Jose Rizal, 78-68, on Tuesday to secure its 10th straight finals appearance.

"Of course, they would say they're the underdogs. I'd like to say we're also the underdogs. Filipinos love to be underdogs but when you ask them if they can do it even though it’s against all odds, they'd still say they'll do it.

"So really, it's a double-edged sword," he added.

The Lions will be coming into the series with two African imports, Ola Adeogun and Donald Tankoua, and an experienced roster skippered by Baser Amer, who was part of the team that made the finals the last five seasons and going all the way in all five.

But Jarin was quick to debunk all of it as myths.

"They say San Beda has height advantage but I ask you, what's our average height? 6-2. What's the average height of Letran? 6-3," said Jarin. "Anybody going to the championship can't say they don't have experience and I think they have experience because they have players who know how it feels playing there."

Jarin was referring to Kevin Racal, Mark Cruz and Rey Nambatac, all instrumental in the Knights' strong season.

Racal and Cruz were part of the Letran team that made it to the finals in 2012 under Louie Alas and 2013 under Caloy Garcia before losing to San Beda in three games while Nambatac was part of the 2013 runner up finish.

Amer, in fact said, Cruz is tougher than him.

"He's better than me," said Amer of Cruz.

"It's always tough to play Letran. Their defense is really hard to beat. Proof of it is that they always give us a hard time bringing up the ball and we commit 20-plus turnovers whenever we play them," said Amer.

Letran coach Aldin Ayo, however, stressed they're the underdogs.

"For me, it's not an excuse that there is a foreigner in the opposing team. Coming from a province like Sorsogon, I always look at it that there will be imports because I already put it in my system fitting small-ball type of teams like us," he said.