University of the Philippines will only have two days to prepare for its next game, and for head coach Goldwin Monteverde, that is most welcome.
The defending champions, the Fighting Maroons, suffered a humbling 87-67 defeat at the hands of the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers in their UAAP Season 88 Men’s Basketball Tournament opener on Sunday at the Quadricentennial Pavilion.
While a two-day turnaround may seem short, Monteverde sees it as a positive. It gives his team no time to dwell on their 20-point loss as they begin their bid for back-to-back titles.
“Well, for me, siguro it’s really tough yung mga ganito, but our next game is Wednesday, so there’s no time for us to feel sorry for ourselves,” said Monteverde.
“Kumbaga after this try to watch the game, try to find out which things to work on then move forward for the next game against Adamson,” he added.
(C) UAAP Season 88 Media Team
UP will face Adamson on Wednesday at 4:30 PM, still at the UST Quadricentennial Pavilion, for a chance to bounce back and secure their first win of the season.
The Adamson Soaring Falcons also lost their opening game but took solace in their narrow defeat against another title favorite, the De La Salle Green Archers, 58-60.
“Siyempre, this is not the usual start na gusto namin, but then we need to deal with yung next game every time ganon naman diba? As I said before, life goes on. After this loss, may dadating na bagong games, so we as a team should prepare well. And two days lang pinag-uusapan, hindi na namin pag-iisipan yung sama ng loob dito,” said the soft-spoken mentor.
“Kumbaga hindi ito importante, yung preparasyon namin for the next game, ganon naman talaga ang buhay diba? I mean if something goes wrong, life goes on, you need to move forward.”
This marks Monteverde’s first opening weekend loss since Season 84, a rare setback for the Fighting Maroons.
Mark Belmonte led UP with 12 points, while Harold Alarcon and Jacob Bayla contributed 11 points each. However, Alarcon struggled, shooting just 4-of-16 from the field.
