Despite exiting the NCAA Season 98 Seniors Basketball Tournament on Tuesday, Arellano University’s Cade Flores and Axel Doromal would rather look at the positive side of their team’s season.
The Chiefs finished the tourney right at the middle of the standings with a 7-11 win-loss record. According to Flores, he considered it as a good finish considering the team is full of young blood.
“You gotta keep in mind that this team is full of rookies. We never played together, this is our first season, let alone first two months of training together because we started on FilOil. I mean you gotta find the chemistry with the boys that you play with and it’s kinda difficult when you get straight in the pressure of the NCAA,” said Flores who had a strong chance on contending for the rookie of the year award.
“I don’t know man.. It’s like we just needed time to gel, you know. First season, 12 or 13 rookies I think. So that’s basically the whole team I mean. But look where we go.”
“Siguro naman magiging maganda yung team namin for the next season kasi tulad nga ng sabi ni Cade na nagkulang kami sa gel ng team kasi sobrang late ng preparation namin. May mga players din kami na sobrang late na dumating. Ang daming rookies, ang daming bata. Kailangan lang namin siguro mag-adjust,” Doromal seconded.
Arellano showed flashes of potential after giving Lyceum of the Philippines University a 77-63 blowout last month as they were even leading by 31 points at one point in the ball game against a solid Final Four contender.
The Chiefs are also one of the three teams this season who punished the defending champions Colegio de San Juan de Letran, taking a 72-69 upset win, giving the Knights their first NCAA loss in three years.
It was indeed a rollercoaster ride for Arellano which is why Doromal felt a strong feeling of regret knowing that they could have definitely done more this Season 98.
“Nanghihinayang kasi we could’ve done more pa. Ang dami naming lapses, konting lapses sa mga previous games namin. Ang dami naming close games, kaya nanghihinayang talaga. Tas [nung] second round sunod-sunod pa yung injury nung mga key players namin. Wala, sayang,” said Doromal.
Now that they have the experience playing together, Flores made sure to convey to the league that the young Chiefs will be even more motivated to succeed next season.
“We did pretty well compared to other teams who’ve been playing for like two or three years together. But we just gotta come back next year for sure, and y’all gotta watch out for sure.”
