Before the start of the NCAA Season 94 Seniors Basketball Tournament, San Sebastian Golden Stags head coach Egay Macaraya was left scrambling.
San Sebastian, who was poised to be one of the deepest teams in the Grand Old League, saw five of its cagers leave the school — three of whom transferred to Lyceum namely Jayson David, Renzo Navarro, and Alvin Baetiong.
A full year later, Macaraya has moved on from the debacle, even expressing his pride of having helped mentor the.
“Palagi kong sinasabi na, ‘Ey! There’s always a chance na hindi kayo maganda dito sa akin at maganda kayo sa kabila.’
“Because di naman kayo parehas ng attitude. Sana Jayson, Navarro and all those guys do well,” expressed Macaraya. “At that time naman na andito samin si Jayson, he was doing fine, only Navarro cause marami talaga akong point na mas maganda pa nilalaro sa kanya.”
San Sebastian has been doing well early in the Season 95 tournament, wiping out their first two opponents by an average 36.5 points per game.
On the other hand, Navarro has been one of the stabilizers of Lyceum’s bench while David has been posting norms of 8.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.7 steals, and 2.7 assists per game.
“Palagi kong niloloko si Jayson na nawala nga si CJ Perez pero nandyan pa rin si CJ Perez.”
And Macaraya will get a chance to face-off against his former players on Tuesday when they take on the Pirates.
But this game is also something Lyceum head coach Topex Robinson has been looking forward to every year.
“Playing against San Sebastian will always be something special for me. Sabi ko nga kapag binalatan mo ako, Baste ang dugo ko. I’m happu where they are right now,” the youthful mentor, who was the head coach of the team back from Seasons 87-88, said.
“I’m a proud Sebastian and I will always be.”
At the end of the day, both Macaraya and Robinson only want one thing — for them to produce players that will have bright futures either in basketball or outside of it.
“Kung mas gaganda laro nila sa LPU, much better for them be cause mapupunta sila sa PBA and I can say, ‘Ey! Isa yan mga naging players ko!'”
