The scorching rivalry between the University of the Visayas Green Lancers and the Southwestern University-Phinma Cobras runs so deep that at times, it spills off the court.
Such was the case on Sunday night as the competing teams’ head coaches—UV’s Gary Cortes and SWU’s Yayoy Alcoseba—engaged one another in a little bit of gamesmanship near halftime and even after the final buzzer.
Near halftime, as Cortes vehemently protested an unsportsmanlike foul call on his ward, Bassiere Sackor, Alcoseba jeered the Green Lancers mentor and encouraged him to “walk out” of the game. It was a reference to the 2015 incident in Medellin, north Cebu where Cortes led a Lancers walk-out of their exhibition game against the University of San Carlos Warriors, which got him suspended for a few months.
Later, with the victory already in the bag and with just seconds left in the match, Cortes exhausted all his timeouts. Then, after the final buzzer, the two did not bother to shake hands, each heading straight to their team’s respective dugouts.
However, Cortes, in a talk afterwards, thought nothing of the shenanigans.
“It was nothing. In the second round, when we lost to them, I went to their bench to shake Coach Yayoy’s (Alcoseba) hands but they weren’t there already. So I just returned the favor,” the young head coach said in Cebuano.
As for the late timeouts—often considered an affront when the game is already won—Cortes said he deliberately called them to specifically remind his players to keep on playing defense and keep scoring to avoid any complications later on, should the quotient system come into play.
Cortes though, maintains that in spite of all the back-and-forth, he has nothing but respect for Alcoseba and that he just wants to show that he, and the rest of his team, will not back down from the challenge.
“I just want to show him (Alcoseba) that we will not get intimidated. I have nothing but respect for him. But as a young coach, we just want to prove ourselves against him. I was still playing and Coach Yayoy was already coaching so I have the utmost respect for him,” shared Cortes.
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