Rising in the east
University of the East (UE) bucked a ski, stunned a champion and stretched a streak to move itself to a much better position no one could have foretold before the season started.
And all because Jack Santiago reminded the Warriors who they were going to battle for.
“I always tell my players that you should protect the [name] written in front of [your jersey], which is the school, and the one written [at the] back, which is your family name,” Santiago told a pair of reporters after the Red Warriors bucked National University, 57-51, over the weekend in the UAAP Season 87 men’s basketball tourament.
“That’s the only thing that I [keep] telling the players. I [am] strict but at the end of the day, it’s not for me but for all of them,” he said.
After a 0-2 start from defeats handed by University of Santo Tomas and lone unbeaten crew University of the Philippines, the Red Warriors are now riding a three-game winning streak, including a huge victory against defending champion La Salle, to be at the upper half of the standings.
John Abate has been turning heads with his continued rise as the leader of UE along with big man Precious Momowei, Ethan Galang, Wello Lingolingo and Rainer Maga.
As one of the rising teams, Santiago says it is easy to fight for a common goal when a team does not have superstars and all the players get along—even if one of the Warriors has been getting a lot of mentions lately.
“I am so proud of [Abate]. I spoke to him [after our game against La Salle] and I told him to just be humble and to avoid social media,” Santiago said. “Because [if we read everything written about us], we might think that we’re already so good.”
“We need to stay humble. The bottomline here is we had a big game against the champion team so we could afford to lose, especially this game against NU,” he added.
UE is turning out to be one of the contenders for one of the Final Four spots especially if it can finish the first round strong and keep its momentum in the next round.
But to do that, Santiago has a challenge for his cogs that could be the pivotal part of their campaign.
“What I want to see from my players is to not be satisfied with our big wins because that’s the tendency of players when they get good games. The tendency is to relax.” the Warrior mentor said. “If you want to be a part of the elite team we need to win the big games so I am so happy with the players that they are responding to my challenge and hopefully we don’t get satisfied with winning three consecutive games. We have two more games and we need to finish the first round with the winning momentum.”
Those two games against skidding Ateneo and close competitor Adamson could serve as the barometer whether UE indeed has what it takes to be the dark horse this season.
“Actually I am starting to see in my players that they’re starting to realize and believe in themselves that they can win, which I have been always telling them: They can win,” Santiago said.
And if they waver in that belief, they can always read the name sewn on the front and back of their jerseys.
