Cellar-dwelling UP Maroons sack Dandan, hire Madrid

A TEAMMATE of PBA greats Benjie Paras and Rey Magsanoc in the crack University of the Philippines squad that won the 1986 UAAP championship has taken over the helm of the troubled Maroons.

Rey Madrid yesterday replaced Ricky Dandan as head coach of the University of the Philippines in its bid to turn around the Maroons’ pitiful run in the men’s basketball tournament.

The Maroons remain winless in eight games in what’s turning out to be a season no different from their woeful campaigns in recent years.

Sources confirmed the mid-season coaching change even as Ronnie Dizer, UP’s representative to the UAAP board, said the coaching staff’s performance remains “under evaluation.”

In 2010, the Maroons also replaced coach Aboy Castro with Boyet Fernandez in the middle of the tournament.

Dandan took over from Fernandez in 2011, but the Maroons continued to struggle with a 3-33 win-loss record in the last three seasons.

The UP team that included Paras, Magsanoc and Madrid turned out to be the school’s last champion squad.

Madrid later mentored the UP seniors team in the early ’90s.

Dandan last called the shots against Ateneo on Thursday where the Maroons absorbed a 59-67 setback after blowing a double-digit advantage, 33-22, in the first half.