National University has been battered, bruised, and beaten in the UAAP Season 81 men’s basketball tournament but head coach Jamike Jarin told his team to just roll with the punches and get up as a man.
The Bulldogs latest blunder was a close 89-88 loss to University of the Philippines Sunday at Smart Araneta Coliseum but Jarin still kept a positive outlook despite the dreary circumstance.
“We just have to do this, we can’t put our heads down, and we have to take this as a man,” said Jarin. “We have to continue to be competitive and we can’t do it by ourselves we have to do it together.”
Credit to the Bulldogs, they were only blown out once in the tournament after suffering a brutal 72-46 loss to defending champion Ateneo.
Apart from that 26-point beating, the Bulldogs lost by a five-point margin at worst.
In the Bulldogs’ four other defeats, they lost by five to Adamson University, 63-58, four against De La Salle, 80-76, five against Far Eastern University, 73-68.
Their lone victory is a 75-70 win over University of Santo Tomas.
Jarin said they can’t afford to feel dejected about themselves and instead just push through with the tasks at hand.
“There are a lot of things to be thankful for and we can’t be sorry for ourselves because nobody’s sorry for us,” said Jarin, whose team tied University of the East at the bottom of the standings with a 1-5 card. “I think the results will be in our favor the next time around. This team lost two games by five points, one game by four, and then one game by one, and isn’t that enough experience for these young men to go through?”
“We need to get up, there’s nowhere to go but play together and the results will be better.”