Kevin Quiambao–MARLO CUTE/INQUIRER.net
The University of the Philippines (UP) and La Salle criticized the first game of their UAAP Season 87 men’s basketball tournament title duel as if the result mattered less than what it had on paper.
“You don’t win a championship in the first game,” UP coach Goldwin Monteverde said after the Maroons’ 73-65 victory in the series opener Sunday. “(Part of the) process (of getting a championship) is winning the first game. And (we did that), so we’ll just have to focus on what we need to improve on in terms of (our) mistakes (during ) the game.”
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“The only thing I told the team (is) there’s a reason why this is a series: you don’t win a championship by winning a game, you need two games,” La Salle coach Topex Robinson said after the Archers’ loss. the Maroons for the first time since, coincidentally, the first game of their title fight last season.
It could be that the lessons of this championship duel last season have watered down the effect of the first game of this final. After the Maroons won the first game of this series – by 30 points, in fact, the Archers came back strong to win the next two games and run away with the crown.
New team
But as if reading from the same script, both coaches also dismissed this slice of UAAP history.
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“We’re not looking back to the past, it’s over,” Robinson said. “We (know) UP thought about that too, that they lost (the series last year after winning) the first game. We just have to let things go and focus on what we have.”
“We never lived in the past,” Monteverde said. “So right now, like I said, part of the process of winning a championship is winning Game 1. So we’ve got that figured out now, so we’re going to prepare for Game 2. So we’re going to do our best, (do) everything we can to (win), and when that game day comes, whatever happens, we’ll take on the challenge there.
There’s a reason La Salle didn’t place too much emphasis on his return last season. Many key cogs from that championship team are already gone, putting the Archers at a slight disadvantage in terms of experience in this kind of pressure test.
“The players are different now; we have a younger team,” Robinson said. “The team that played last season is gone and (the players) have moved on, so we have to fight. We just have to make sure we give ourselves a chance to win…they did a good job defensively and credit to them, they really came prepared. Robinson said.
Monteverde, on the other hand, still has players who accompanied it in all four of the Maroons’ finals appearances.
UP ended a 36-year title drought in Season 84, but lost Season 85 to the Ateneo Blue Eagles before crashing to La Salle in Season 86. In the two finals losses, UP won the first match.
So maybe there’s a bit of those memories keeping the Maroons in check.
“The series doesn’t end in the first game,” said JD Cagulangan, whose spectacular three-pointer sealed UP’s triumph in Season 84. “We’re just going to go back to practice and (hope) ) that (La Salle) adapts (to) what we do.”
And maybe that comeback last season means something for La Salle after all.
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“We still have a chance. We have been in this situation before, we just have to continue to be positive and try to learn from this experience. Again, it’s a tough team we faced, we just have to fight through in the end,” Robinson said. INQ
