Host St. Benilde not expecting much, opens bid vs champ Letran
While attention is focused on defending champion Letran and a fully rebuilt San Beda, hardly anyone noticed host St. Benilde silently preparing for the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) return to in-person men’s basketball competitions on Saturday.
No big deal, there wasn’t much to see anyway, according to St. Benilde’s new head coach Charles Tiu,
“We only practiced face-to-face last Feb. 15, one of the last teams to practice face-to-face,” said Tiu. “We waited for some players to arrive in Manila and only got completed by first week of March.”
So as other teams complained that the preparations for Season 97 was too short, Tiu felt the Blazers’ had it worse—a scenario that has the school setting realistic targets.
“Our goal is make the Final Four,” said Tiu whose team hasn’t been in the semifinals since 2002. “But I’m not sure if it’s going to be this year.”
Supercharged
And immediately, Tiu and the Blazers will be thrown into a tough test in the opener as they face the supercharged Knights at La Salle Greenhills on Saturday.
Letran will be led by Season 95 Most Valuable Player Fran Yu and will get a boost from its acquisition of University of Santo Tomas standouts Rhenz Abando and Brent Paraiso in the off-season.
“Their (Letran) players are PBA-bound,” said Tiu who is also a coaching staff member with Meralco as well as with the Batang Gilas. “Also, players from other schools have been playing in other leagues where they even dominate. Their confidence is high. My players, they have zero exposure since the pandemic.”
Tiu may simply be downplaying his chances. After all, he bared that he tweaked “a lot of things” from the system of his predecessor, TY Tang, whom he served as assistant since 2016.
The Blazers will still have Robi Nayve, Ladis Lepalam and Will Gozum. But it lost key players from the previous season, including Jimboy Pasturan, due to academic conflict.
Fighting and praying
The prospects may not be that bright, but Tiu said the Blazers—where the likes of Sunday Salvacion, Jondan Salvador and Mark Magsumbol came from—“will be out there fighting and praying.”
“Our mindset is to just go out there and play, I don’t care if they one day change venues and allow [spectators in the stands]. I don’t think we have that much fans anyway,” said Tiu. “The important thing for us is to finally play and hopefully beat teams.”
The league formally starts its season with a pretaped opening rites at 2:30 p.m. and two live games. Letran and St. Benilde battle at 3:30 p.m. while San Beda will take on Lyceum at 7 p.m.
Games will be played behind closed doors but will be telecast on GMA Network’s GTV and online at www.gmanetwork.com/ncaa, NCAA Facebook and YouTube channels.
The Red Lions have reportedly been training since last year in the school’s Laguna campus. It will have former Red Cubs Rhayvan Amsali, Yukien Andrada, Justine Sanchez and Tony Ynot. With a new mentor in Gilbert Malabanan, the Pirates will parade mainstays Mclaude Guadana and John Barba.
