Stags looking to ‘pull a surprise’ as NCAA Final Four gets going on Thursday

MANILA, Philippines — Whatever happened throughout the gruelling double-round elimination round of the NCAA won’t play a major part come playoff time as Letran assistant coach Gerard Francisco, San Beda team manager Jude Roque and San Sebastian head coach Topex Robinson know that the Final Four is a whole different story.

“The Final Four is a different ball game,” said Francisco, whose Knights — as it stands — will be meeting the Stags in the semifinals equipped with a twice-to-beat advantage, Tuesday afternoon at the PSA Forum in Malate.

Letran appeared to have San Sebastian all figured out with two convincing wins in the eliminations but it seems like that won’t be the case when the two teams go at it again on Thursday.

“We really can’t tell how they are going to play in the Final Four,” Francisco said on Letran’s potential matchup with no.3 San Sebastian.”

The Stags are on a four-game winning run but Robinson thinks it won’t be one of his team’s advantages heading into the semis.

“At this point you can’t really consider being the hottest team as a factor. We haven’t won against San Beda and Letran this season and as much as we want to ride on our winning streak, the reality is we’re going to be up against the elite teams in the NCAA,” Robinson said.

In fact, as Robinson pointed out, the Stags haven’t beaten the Knights since 2011. A losing skid the former PBA guard hopes to end soon.

“We’re hoping we could pull a surprise,” Robinson said.

In the other semifinals bracket, San Beda, eyeing a fourth straight championship, is also up for a grinder against no.4 Perpetual Help.

“It’s going to be tough for us because the two games that we’ve had against them even if we won were very tough games for us especially in the second round where we almost lost and we won it in overtime,” Roque recalled.

The Red Lions will continue to lean on their foreign center Ola Adeogun, playmaker Baser Amer graduating skipper Rome dela Rosa and other stringers like Art dela Cruz but their depth won’t take away the fact that the Altas are still a dangerous team despite their struggles as of late.

“It’s not going to be easy going up against Perpetual because they have a very talented team and they have a lot of scorers especially Omorogbe, he is very hard to stop and then they have a veteran coach whom I have the highest respect for,” Roque said.

Robinson too is wary of how stacked Letran, led by soon-to-be-named MVP Raymond Almazan, is.

“They have the number one player in Almazan and they have veteran players there and of course a well-rounded coaching staff so I guess player per player we’re the underdogs here. They dominated us in our last two games, they won convincingly and coming into this Final four they have all the advantages there,” Robinson said.

“As I always tell my players, whatever happens here in this Final Four, we consider ourselves as winners because we all know how the competition in the NCAA is right now.”