Photo by Tristan Tamayo/ INQUIRER.net
Inside the NCAA’s hottest team, there are lots of hugs. “I love yous” are said, hands are held in group prayer, and meditations are pretty much their pregame thing.
Sure, there are the usual Xs and Os. But there’s also a “Love. Serve. Care” mantra—printed right on their team shirts as constant reminder. And as focused as they look on the hardcourt, there’s a palpable warm and fuzzy feeling among the Lyceum Pirates.
“Those people who know what we do, it’s normal. If not, they’ll probably think, ano ba ‘to, kulto yata ‘to (maybe this is a cult),” Lyceum coach Topex Robinson says with a laugh.
“We hug a lot because that’s when you release oxytocin, the love chemical. We really have a lot of touch. That builds trust—the physical contact,” Robinson shares. “We really have sessions in our dugout that can be weird if you’re not aligned with us.”
Robinson doesn’t expect everyone to understand. But after completing a historic 18-0 sweep that propelled them straight to the NCAA Finals, the Pirates now revel on the off-kilter approach that transformed them from a cellar-dweller to a top seed.
“You really have to build a relationship. And a relationship means you find out what’s happening to them (the players),” Robinson shares. “You go beyond the practice sessions. There should be empathy and perspective. Usually it’s about authority, about imposing fear, about manipulating—meaning, if you’re doing the right thing, I’ll use you. And if you’re wrong, I’m right. But if you’re empathy-driven and a player is messing up, you go deep. You ask if there’s a problem. Is there a problem at home? In school? That’s where I’m coming from in leading these players.”
All the touchy-feely, though, didn’t fly right off the bat. For these young men strutting as cool jocks on campus, it was initially, a tad corny and awkward.
“You have to bring the right person in the bus,” says Robinson. “What’s important for me is character. I can say these are character players. In order to have that buy-in, you have to bring the right person. Talent is important, but I’m more into character. Skill is something they can develop. But the character, it’s hard. It’s their belief system.”
It was a gamble, Robinson admits. But the 37-year-old mentor took the leap after having his own moment of epiphany.
“After our season last year, it was the second year of my tenure that we ended up No. 9 (out of 10 teams),” he says. “I really had to change something because it’s not working. I thought, ‘What’s wrong?’ I found out that I know what I do, I know how to do it, but I don’t know why I’m doing it. So I changed the way I look at it, inside-out. I looked at my why first.”
As existential as it all sounds, that was really Robinson’s light-bulb moment. The former PBA playmaker needed to reassess the reason he turned to coaching.
“My why is to strive to help them (the players) to be the best version of themselves,” says Robinson. “That means I’m going to swallow a lot of my ego, a lot of pride as head coach. That means I’m going to be wrong some times and they’re allowed to make mistakes. It’s about servant-leadership. That’s basically where I’m coming from. It’s really empathy-driven. It’s the power of love.”
“Love is not a sign of weakness,” he adds. “I’ve learned about the law of reciprocity. If you genuinely love your players, they will genuinely help you.”
And that, indeed, was what the players did for Robinson. Early in the season, the Pirates took many by surprise when they shocked the defending San Beda Red Lions. Soon, the wins kept piling up—from routs to close shaves—behind the solid performances of CJ Perez, Mike Nzeusseu, MJ Ayaay and the Marcelino twins Jaycee and Jayvee.
“When we started, I needed to articulate why we do what we do,” says Robinson. “I explained to them we’re not a goal-oriented team. We have a vision and that is to inspire others. Inspiration means it’s not for me, it’s about the others. We’re playing for their families, for their parents, for their future. It’s basically that. It just so happens winning is the result of what we’re doing.”
“If we’re goal-oriented, we’d just want to sweep, we’d just want to win the championship,” he continues. “But since we’re vision-oriented, it’s way past basketball. We’re talking about their lives 15 years from now. We want them to come out here as better persons, better fathers, better brothers, better sons. And that’s way beyond the season. So they know that their purpose is deeper than the wins.”
Robinson, though, has made sure his talks won’t end up as mere motherhood statements. He shows genuine care—like by checking on their academics (he makes surprise classroom visits to see if his players are there) and even knowing their quirks (he knows millennial parlance like ghosting).
“It has to start from me,” says Robinson. “Trust and cooperation are not instructions, they’re feelings. I cannot just tell them, ‘You two trust each other, you cooperate.’ It’s a feeling and we have to invest on that.”
And it’s an investment that has paid dividends for Lyceum. Just last Thursday, the Pirates pulled off another gutsy performance to survive the Red Lions in a double-overtime classic, 107-105, to complete an 18-0 sweep—the best elimination record in league history—that vaulted them to the championship round for the first time.
For Perez, one of the leading MVP candidates this season, it’s trust that made the difference. “Before the game, coach asked us to think about our heroes,” he says. “Actually, I thought of him as my hero. He has given me so much trust. Even when I was struggling, I was still there because he helped me, he pushed me. He really motivated me.”
As the Pirates roll to the final stretch of the season, Robinson intends to stick to a familiar refrain. “We want to be an inspiration to others. That will never end as long as we share the same values and beliefs,” he says. “That’s our north star—inspiring others. And it’s not going to change, whether we’re winning or losing.”
Winning the championship, of course, will be a fitting end to Lyceum’s extraordinary run. And the Pirates are just two wins away from that.
Just two more wins, but still more than enough love to go around.