UAAP: UST Tigers, NU Bulldogs clash to get back on track

It’s fair to say that University of Santo Tomas (UST) and National University (NU) will be coming off wake-up calls. But one of them would be forced to stay in a slumber.

The Growling Tigers and the Bulldogs battle it out for the first time in Season 87 of the UAAP men’s basketball tournament, with both looking to put behind the bitter taste of lopsided losses the last time out and get back on track of pursuing the unbeaten elimination round leaders.

Game time is 4:30 p.m. at Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, where Santo Tomas and National will go different ways even as Adamson is listed as the red-hot favorite over struggling Ateneo in the 6 p.m. game.

Santo Tomas, after a 2-0 start, took a 69-56 loss to the Soaring Falcons last weekend, before the Bulldogs ran smack into a well-organized University of the Philippines crew and lost, 89-62 on Wednesday, their worst defeat in five years.

“That’s why our coaches keep telling us that we need to respect all the teams,” Santo Tomas gunner Nic Cabañero had said in Filipino after the defeat. “It’s a wake-up call for us to improve on what we need to improve on.”

“We need to learn from this and we will continue to dedicate this season to our families and the UST community.”

It was such a shocking loss for the team that went on a massive recruiting binge in the offseason targeting at least a Final Four appearance.

And Adamson, which came off a 30-point loss to defending champion La Salle, coolly dusted off the win that labeled the Falcons as semifinal contenders.

“This is a long season, we are not thinking about that. We look [at] it game-to-game,” said coach Nash Racela when told that his crew flaunted Final Four potential.

“Every game is different, and that’s what we (coaching staff) preach [to] the players,” Racela added. “The defense that [we] will be facing will be different the next time around so we can’t be happy with this result.”

Decimated roster

The Blue Eagles, meanwhile, are trying to make do with a roster that was decimated by transfers, graduation and some simply leaving as they are off to their worst start in the Tab Baldwin era.

Compounding matters for Ateneo is the injury to Chris Koon, the skipper who was out of its last two games because of a foot injury.

Incidentally, this will be the first meeting of the two schools since Ateneo ousted Adamson in a playoff for the last Final Four slot last season.

Meanwhile, defending women’s champion UST and NU, undefeated in three games, collide in a rematch of last year’s Finals at 11:30 a.m., while Ateneo and Adamson, both sporting 2-1 slates, slug it out in an equally interesting duel at 1:30 p.m.