UST coach Ayo says Rike statement ‘unfair’

Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

National University forward Troy Rike decried the roughing up University of Santo Tomas big men, he claimed, did against him in the second round of the UAAP Season 81 men’s basketball tournament.

Rike was on the receiving end of what he said were some elbows and knees during their 69-61 win but Growling Tigers head coach Aldin Ayo said the forward’s statements were “unfair.”

READ: Rike doesn’t mind physicality but not dirty plays

“That’s unfair because we also receive those kinds of hits,” said Ayo in Filipino Sunday at Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan. “Everything we’re doing is within the bounds of basketball rules so I think that’s unfair.”

Rike went up against the likes of Germy Mahinay, Enrique Caunan, and Ira Bataller but it was Mahinay whom the Bulldog forward had some heated moments with.

Mahinay and Rike got into it in the fourth quarter during a dead ball situation after the UST center pushed off JV Gallego away from the Growling Tigers’ huddle.

Ayo said Rike’s statement might have been due to the different culture he was raised in.

Rike grew up in the United States and studied his undergrad at Wake Forest.

“I think it also depends on the culture,” said Ayo. “That’s why I don’t like recruiting Filipino-Americans except for Fil-Ams who really play like Filipinos.”

“That’s why I like players from the Visayas, the guys from the south, and also the guys from Manila who really have that resilient spirit.”