Bench ready to step up for suspended Forthsky in first Tigers game
University of Santo Tomas will be putting on a literal show to open Season 88 of the UAAP.
But when men’s basketball action starts, Forthsky Padrigao won’t be on the floor to serve a mandatory suspension incurred from the Growling Tigers’ final game last season. Coach Pido Jarencio, though, said his charges are ready.
“We have multiple players ready to step up,” Jarencio told the Inquirer over the phone on Tuesday as he prepares his squad to a collision with defending champion University of the Philippines on Sept. 21 at UST’s Quadricentennial Pavilion.
“It’s a chance for the other players,” Jarencio went on. “And they are ready.”
Grandiose opening ceremonies are being planned by Santo Tomas for opening day on its campus grounds on Sept. 19 with the parade of athletes—and the performance of the Salinggawi—highlighting the show. There will be no games slated that day, a far departure from the usual practice of having most of the teams in action.
The Tigers, meanwhile, have worked the entire off-season to again make the Final Four and make a deeper playoff run with a team built around graduating players Padrigao and Nic Cabañero.
Interestingly, Padrigao got canned for two unsportsmanlike fouls that resulted in an automatic ejection against the Fighting Maroons last season, and he will not be present when the Tigers gun to avenge a 78-69 loss.
Padrigao exited with seven points and three assists in over 25 minutes of action.
Last season, the former Ateneo guard posted averages of 8.67 points and 5.87 assists per game for the España-based squad.
Padrigao’s efforts were one of the key factors in UST’s Final Four appearance after they ended the elimination round with a 7-7 card.
Cabañero, meanwhile, averaged a team-high 16 points per game to go along with 5.27 rebounds. He will come into his final season again as Jarencio’s top offensive gun.
The Maroons will also come into the season a far different team, but one that still packs a lot of wallop.
Gone are one-and-done big man Quintin Millora-Brown, point guard JD Cagulangan and Francis Lopez, who are all playing abroad now.
But Jarencio believes that UP is still one of the teams to beat this season, owing to its deep bench.
“They’re still as strong as before,” Jarencio said. “There are no ‘weak’ teams in the UAAP and we have to be ready to go to battle each and every game.”
