Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Lyceum’s 18-0 eliminations sweep of the NCAA Season 93 men’s basketball tournament will forever go down in history as one of the greatest achievements in collegiate basketball history.
And although the Pirates eventually lost to San Beda in the Finals, head coach Topex Robinson said they’re just getting started.
“I told the team right after that we’re building a culture and that culture is not an overnight thing, it’s a compilation of years and years of what we’re doing,” said Robinson Thursday at Smart Araneta Coliseum after losing Game 2, 92-82.
READ: Robinson: Coach Boyet made me a better coach
“We’re excited for what’s going to happen, what lies ahead of us. I always them that it’s just the tip of the iceberg for us, we have so many basketball to play and so many people to inspire.”
What makes Robinson have a positive outlook for the future is that the Lyceum’s core is still intact with Winston Baltazar and Edcor Marata the only Pirates to leave due to graduation.
And Robinson is done grieving their lost title opportunity.
READ: No regrets for Perez, Lyceum after finals loss: ‘It was a good experience for us’
Lyceum will join the PBA D-League with the same roster that competed in the NCAA, and even though Robinson added another league to compete in, he hasn’t forgetten that his Pirates are still student-athletes.
“Season 94 will start tomorrow for us, when you have a good group of young men that are just so hungry to really improve that’s what you get,” said Robinson. “At the end of the day this is just basketball, there’s so much to basketball than losing games. We’re preparing for your future and the first thing they will do is attend their classes.”
“Our vision won’t stop just because of losing these Finals, we just made a bigger platform now of really pushing through with our vision. At the end of the day we will be defined as a team on how we faced this loss, this adversity.”