ZERO GRAVITY
There’s Xerox and there’s Google, brand names whose functions have been so exploited by their users that they have become acceptable verbs.
Then there’s University of the East (UE), which has made a run so surprising, Adamson coach Nash Racela is using the school name to introduce something new to the Philippine basketball lexicon.
“I hope we can do a UE,” Racela said of his plans for the second round of the UAAP Season 87 men’s basketball tournament.
The result of the last first-round playdate left the unheralded squad with the hottest active winning streak of the season.
But the Warriors are not picking up from where they left off when the second round starts.
“We already achieved a 5-2 (win-loss) record so by next game in the second round, we’re back to zero,” said UE coach Jack Santiago in Filipino.
The reason?
“We can’t afford to relax,” Santiago said. “We’ll be back to reality again; we will continue working.”
UE is looking to end a 15-year Final Four absence and greased its path toward that after it tied its best start since the 2014 season. The latest in a string of five wins came when Wello Lingolingo beat the buzzer to lead the Red Warriors past the Adamson Falcons, 63-62, in a thrilling first-round finish before an ecstatic UE crowd last Sunday at Mall of Asia Arena.
UE is currently third in the standings behind defensing champion La Salle and University of the Philippines (UP), the other finalist last season—both are tied at 6-1. The Archers’ victory over the Maroons snapped UP’s six-game winning streak and left UE with the hottest win run in the tournament.
Turning point
Racela wants to emulate UE’s first round in the hopes of crashing the Final Four this year.
“The first round, we got just three [wins],” the former PBA coach with TNT said. “UE was able to do that [and now] they [have] become our inspiration.”
Santiago, who won a total of nine wins in the past two years, knew the potential of his young squad that lost star Rey Remogat and wasn’t fazed when the team started with back-to-back losses.
“Ever since I had this batch of [Warriors], I honestly believed that we could beat other teams. So it happened that we had two setbacks [in our first two games]. But I still believed in my players, that they can [compete this season],” said Santiago.
The UE coach believes the turning point to their success was when they stunned defending champion La Salle last month—the only defeat of the Green Archers in the first round.
“The best thing that happened to us was when we played against the number one team and luckily we beat them. [The players] felt that we can [beat anyone]. And from there, we worked harder, and we challenged ourselves to [face] every challenge that came to us,” he said.
Precious Momowei, UE’s stats leader, agreed with his coach, saying that his teamwork with Lingolingo, John Abate, Jack Cruz-Dumont, Rainer Maga, Devin Fikes and Gjerard Wilson brought them inside the Final Four picture.
“We have all this belief ever since the start of this season. Our No. 1 goal is making the Final Four. Whatever it takes. We just have to be consistent and play as a team,” said the sophomore Red Warrior.
UE faces a stern test at the start of the second round when it faces La Salle again on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Not only will the Archers look for payback for their only defeat this season, they will also be riding high on the morale-boosting victory over the erstwhile undefeated Maroons.
