NU Bulldogs in the UAAP Season 86 men’s basketball tournament. -UAAP PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Come hell or high water, expect National University to keep sticking to its system come the second round of the UAAP Season 86 men’s basketball tournament.
After all, the Bulldogs’ style of play has done wonders for them with a 6-1 record at the end of the opening round despite their high number of turnovers.
NU committed 21 turnovers on Saturday but still beat Adamson, 69-66. The miscues don’t seem to bother coach Jeff Napa due to his team’s success in spite of it.
“Maybe that’s just our style of play. But I don’t care. Whatever happens in these stats, as long as we do it our way,” said Napa in Filipino.
“We’re winning so we don’t care. As long as they do their parts and their jobs, it’s no problem. That’s our deal, the W. Whether you go 0/10, as long as you get the W. Never mind the bad stats, it’s that simple.”
Bulldogs did shoot well from the field with a 56 percent shooting clip.
Their hot shooting allowed them to overcome a slow start with Kean Baclaan catching fire in the third quarter, where he sank five triples en route to a 19-point outing.
“It’s good that these players stepped up, they led their expectations that they are really contenders. Hopefully, coming to the second round, we become consistent so what happened in that first half won’t happen again,” Napa said. “We have goals. That’s the target.”
Consistency will be vital as competition heats up in the second round.
“We really need to be consistent because there are times when our first group plays well and our second doesn’t, so come the second round we need to fix that because all of our opponents are peaking,” said Baclaan.
The Bulldogs, who are just a half-game behind No. 1 University of the Philippines (6-0) hope to carry their momentum into the next round.