Photo by Tristan Tamayo/ INQUIRER.net
After Letran finished the first round with a 5-4 slate, coach Jeff Napas said there was still a lot to be desired with the way his team is playing this NCAA Season 93 men’s basketball tournament.
“I’m still not satisfied because I feel that we still lack effort. We’re still not giving a total team effort. That’s going to be our focus in the second round,” the Knights mentor said in Filipino.
Down at the cellar at one point of the season at 1-3, Letran has went on to rack up four straight victories before Lyceum halted that run, 75-68, on Friday.
It was undeniable that Jeo Ambohot’s wrist injury, which he got in the Knights’ last game against San Sebastian, may have had a hand in the recent loss as the team scampered to fill up the hole left in the middle.
“It’s a big factor that we lost Jeo because he’s part of our rotation. We’re losing eight points, eight rebounds, and three blocks from him,” said the multi-titled coach.
However, Napa argued that it wasn’t an excuse for Letran to be in disarray, as evidenced in the defeat to the Pirates where big men Daryl Pascual and Irvin Mandreza both fouled out of the game.
“We shouldn’t use that as an excuse. It’s a matter of stepping up from whoever I pull from our bench,” he said.
As disheartening as the defeat was, Napa said that the Knights’ final game of the first round should serve as a lesson for his bench.
“My bench players didn’t step up. We still depend on our main guys to play heavy minutes and that’s where we suffered,” he said. “But the players are still positive. We just have to adjust and check the mindset of our players, especially the ones on the bench, for them to recall their roles.”
Napa ended: “Every game, we learn a lot. It’s all a matter of executing our game plan. That’s what we want to achieve, that for our bench players to compliment our main guys.”