Ateneo battles FEU minus coach
New Ateneo coach Louie Alas went from playing in his first rivalry match to missing the next game due to a suspension for the first time as a Blue Eagle.
The league handed Alas a one-game suspension on the heels of an 83-76 defeat to mortal enemy La Salle, leaving Ateneo without its head coach when it battles league-leading Far Eastern University in the UAAP Season 89 men’s basketball tournament on Saturday.
Alas collected two technical fouls in the game against the Archers, giving him three for the season and meriting an automatic one-game ban.
According to the league, assistant coach Kerby Raymundo was seen “verbally taunting DLSU’s Vhoris Marasigan from the bench” during the game. Alas was “subsequently assessed a direct technical foul for unsportsmanlike behavior, which was later changed to a bench technical foul.”
Alas was earlier whistled for a separate tech for “physical misconduct” with La Salle players in the same sequence.
The veteran mentor’s first infraction came Sept. 19 in Ateneo’s loss to University of the Philippines. Raymundo was assessed a technical foul for “improper bench decorum,” which was also counted against the head coach.
Before the Eagles take on the Tamaraws, another marquee matchup takes place between National University and University of Santo Tomas at 3 p.m., the start of the men’s doubleheader at Araneta Coliseum.
NU puts its 3-2 record on the line against the Tigers, who want to bounce back from an 85-57 beatdown at the hands of Adamson.
