La Salle head coach Aldin Ayo. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
No matter how redoubtable La Salle appears, two of the longest tenured coaches in the UAAP believes the mighty Green Archers are not invincible.
Eric Altamirano and Nash Racela, who steered their respective teams to UAAP titles the past couple of seasons, are aware of La Salle’s full potential to win it all but they are undaunted by the odds.
“They’re just like any other team,” Altamirano, who guided National University to its first UAAP championship in 60 years two years ago and became the first fourth seed ever win the crown. “They’re a collegiate team and there’s no guarantee that they can win every game.”
“The only thing I could say is that there’s always a weakness. There’s always a breaking point. It’s always like that and it’s for us seven other teams to look for that and find that out,” said Racela, who coached Far Eastern University to its first title in a decade last season, with a sinister look.
Loaded from top to bottom, La Salle, unexpectedly, is the unanimous favorite and there’s a reason why the Green Archers are pegged on top of the food chain less than a week to go before the league’s 79th season unfurls.
“Their team now is almost like the team I have last year when you talk about experience, so that makes them a cut above the rest,” Racela said.
“Based on their performance in the preseason, you can see that they know how to win and that’s already an advantage, they already have that confidence aside from the materials,” said Altamirano. “They already know how to win.”