Aldin Ayo and the De La Salle University Green Archers made their 2016 Filoil Flying V debut Saturday afternoon against the Adamson University Soaring Falcons.
Right from the opening tip, the Green Archers immediately pressed up their opponents from end to end. For 40 minutes La Salle’s ten man rotation was able to run up and down the court and force Adamson to 33 turnovers en route to a 98-88 win. However, head coach Aldin Ayo still deemed that his team is far from what he envisions it to be.
“Consistency. Sabi ko nga in terms of i-scale natin yung pag-absorb nila sa sistema nasa 60 to 70% pa lang,” Ayo said. “You may ask ‘bakit ang tagal?’ Pero if you notice sa mga players na yan, walang may background diyan na nagtratrap. So everything is new for them.”
According to Ayo, his system of constant trapping and non-stop movement is more instinctive than textbook. “Minsan hindi ka na mag-iisip. Habit, pagnakita mo na ganito ang situation kahit hindi ka nag-iisip yung katawan mo yun ang gagawin,” he added.
The NCAA Champion coach is optimistic that by the time the UAAP season rolls around, the Taft Avenue-based squad will fully embrace his system. “The way they practice grabe. Kala ko magkakaroon ng resistance, kala ko hindi basta basta mag-susurrender. Pero wala kaming resistance and in-embrace nila yung sistema,” Ayo said about how the team immediately clicked with him. “Yun nga lang hindi pa ganun. Yung katawan at yung utak hindi pa napipick-up yung sistema.”
“But I’m very optimistic we are getting there. So far, magaganda ang ugali ng mga ito at masipag magtrabaho.”
King Archer Jeron Teng, who scored 30 points and grabbed nine boards in the win, admitted that they still need to work on their conditioning to play in that kind of system. “Conditioning talaga. Siyempre as players we need to adjust a new system pero kaya naman,” Teng said.
Teng though added that the team is still far from what they want the team to be. “Malayo pa talaga. Malayo pa from what we want,” the King Archer closed.
