Reeling from a lowly 4-10 record in Season 86, few – if any – counted on University of the East to be part of the Final Four cast in the UAAP Season 87 Collegiate Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Despite that, the Red Warriors were on the path to proving their doubters wrong, ending the first round with a 5-2 record.
This terrific start illuminated UE’s potential to break a 15-year postseason drought dating back to Season 72 in 2009.
The road to a historic season, however, came crashing down as the Red Warriors squandered four chances to enter the Final Four. They ended the season on a five-game skid.
This left them in a playoff with the Adamson Soaring Falcons for the last postseason slot.
Given another lifeline to make the Final Four, UE failed to capitalize again – falling to Adamson, 55-68, in the playoff for the fourth seed on Wednesday evening at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
(C) UAAP Season 87 Media Team
Despite a tough way to bow out of Final Four contention, Red Warriors head coach Jack Santiago remained firm in his belief that UE exceeded expectations this season.
“Yeah, that’s what I told the boys inside the dugout. Even though we fell short, this season is a big achievement for us already. Looking back on this season before the season started, no one, nobody – maybe even you guys, you didn’t expect us to be here,” Santiago told reporters.
“Maybe some of you guys were counting us at No. 8, maybe some of you guys were counting us at No. 7. But you never expected us. No one expected us to be here.”
While he pointed out that some players failed to perform to their potential during the massive second-round collapse, Santiago still took accountability for the Red Warriors falling a game short of making history.
Over the offseason, Santiago vowed to reflect on how he could personally improve as a head coach while making key moves to finally break the team’s 15-year Final Four absence.
“As a coach, maybe meron kami mga mistakes. But at the end of the day, we tried to correct and resolve kung may mga problema… Kailangan pa rin namin mag-improve,” the former La Salle assistant coach shared.
He admitted, “As a coach, kailangan ko rin mag-relax and sit down and then balikan yung mga nangyari, kung saan ba tayo nagkamali at nagkulang.”
Santiago further emphasized that UE could turn this year’s tough lessons into valuable experiences to strengthen their Season 88 campaign, even as they move forward without team captain Jack Cruz-Dumont, Ethan Galang, and Gjerard Wilson.
(C) UAAP Season 87 Media Team
“Siguro I would say na this season, itong na-experience namin will be a learning experience sa mga boys. Lagi ko sinasabi sa kanila na if you want to be in that position, ang tinatawag ko diyan yung mga elite teams, kailangan natin dumaan doon sa games like this,” he said.
“Kumbaga, hindi na dito yung factor na yung magaling ka, hindi na factor dito yung you’re just an average player, but ang factor dito is kung sino yung may malaking puso, yung big heart,” he went on.
“I think ‘yon yung wala sa amin, yung big heart. Maybe by having this experience, hopefully by next year, ma-improve namin ‘yon at ma-improve ng mga bata ‘yon.”
