Amid stong start, Robinson reminds Lyceum to be ‘ready, humble, hungry’

Photo by Tristan Tamayo/ INQUIRER.net

With Lyceum on a 2-0 start in the NCAA Season 93 men’s basketball tournament, coach Topex Robinson is giving full credit to the entire squad and not just a single individual.

“Success is a team sport. It’s really about us, the entirety of the team,” he said.

CJ Perez has undoubtedly been the leader for the Pirates, but the youthful mentor has been adamant in pointing out that the hardworking forward can’t do it all alone.

“That’s what I always tell him. CJ is gonna win games for us, and he’s gonna lose games for us. That’s the way of the world for us. But CJ knows that he will never be better than his teammates. He can never win it by himself,” said Robinson.

And that manifested on Friday in Lyceum’s huge 96-91 win over defending champion San Beda.

As expected, Perez was able to weave his magic and tow his team to the driver’s seat, but he needed the aid of his teammates, specifically Reymar Caduyac, to pull off the victory in the end game.

Robinson praised the versatile winger for his tireless efforts late.

“(Reymar) has really been helping us. He’s deceiving because he looks like a big man but he really is a guard. He’s just confident and our trust on him is there. And today, he just bailed us out with his solid performance.“

Caduyac strung the last five points for the Pirates, which proved to be the final blow to the powerhouse Red Lions.

With the victory fortifying everyone’s claim from the preseason that Lyceum is indeed this year’s dark horse, Robinson was quick to pull his side back to earth and reiterated that it hasn’t proven anything yet.

“Nobody wins a championship in the second game. We know that teams will be playing us harder. We just have to always be ready, prepared, and always be humble and hungry,” he said.

And Robinson hopes that the next games, starting next Friday against San Sebastian, will enhance the Pirates’ camaraderie as they seek to break the glass ceiling and make it to the Final Four for the first time since it joined the league in 2011.

“Hopefully it could really propel our drive, but again, it’s really looking at the vision of really showing that we have a good culture, we have good leaders on the team, we have good that individuals, that are again inspiring others. That’s really important to us,” he said.