UE tactician continues to stand behind his players after free falling out of UAAP Final Four contention in Season 87.
Almost, but not enough.
That has been the story of the UE Red Warriors in UAAP Season 87 as they fell painstakingly short of ending a 15-year drought of Final Four appearances in the collegiate tournament, losing to the Adamson Soaring Falcons in the last chance playoff on Wednesday.
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After a promising start to their campaign with a 5-2 slate at the end of the first round, UE nosedived in the second half of the season — ending their campaign on a six-game losing streak.
Despite all the challenges this year, UE head coach Jack Santiago said that he continued to take pride in his players for what they were able to achieve, even if they did not reach the UAAP semis.
“Number one, I’m proud of the boys. At least somehow, we achieved something here in Season 87. Number one, we improved our Ws compared to last season, we ended up with six wins. Number two, we had a chance to be in the semifinals but again, because of lack of experience, we fell short,” lamented Santiago.
“Again, we achieved something this season and we broke the five-game winning streak but again, siguro 'yung Final Four is not for us. The 15-year drought is not this year.”
During the first round, UE went on a scorching hot win streak where they won five straight — including a stunner against defending champions La Salle which propelled them to the 3-seed midway through the season.
But from that point on, UE could only manage one more win — which signaled that they were peaking at the wrong time.
Santiago, though, was not about to make that his scapegoat and took credit for the mistakes that denied them entry to the Final Four for the first time since 2009. There were multiple chances for the Red Warriors to get into the semis outright. But in the end, they just couldn’t get over the hump.
“We sat down with that issue. We talked to the players, even the coaches kasi nga tinitignan namin na masyadong naging maaga 'yung peak. Hindi namin alam kung hindi pa sanay 'yung mga players in that kind of position. But again, hindi ‘yon 'yung rason namin or alibi namin, but maybe may mga factors na nagkulang kami,” said Santiago.
“Sa players, as a coach maybe meron kami mga mistakes. But at the end of the day, we tried to correct and resolve kung may mga problema and wala naman. 'Yung samahan naman ng mga players and relationships ng players to players and players to coaches, wala problema,” he added.
Nevertheless, Santiago and the Red Warriors will be forced to move on as they end Season 87 at 5th place with their 6-9 record — including the playoff loss to Adamson.
The Red Warriors will be bidding goodbye to seniors Jack Cruz-Dumont, Gjerard Wilson, and Ethan Galang.