UV head coach Gary Cortes gathers his team during one of the elimination round games of the 2019 Cesafi Partner’s Cup. | CDN file
Cebu City, Philippines–With the University of the Visayas (UV) Green Lancers losing their last two games of the elimination round, multi-titled head coach Gary Cortes recognized this as the ideal opportunity to remind this group to “build their own legacy.”
Although the Green Lancers still finished as the top seed after the double round-robin elimination round, UV sputtered to the finish line after losing close games to Southwestern University (SWU)-Phinma and the University of Cebu (UC).
Nevertheless, they are set to take on an undermanned University of San Carlos (USC) squad in the semifinals on Monday, July 29, 2019, needing only to win once to advance to the championship round.
“I just told our team during our light practice to play hard and enjoy the game we love,” said Cortes in a talk with CDN Digital.
“I reminded them that this is a new team, under a new leader, and unproven. This team has to prove something being worthy to be called the Lancers. They must build their own legacy being a Lancers and not just ride on the legacy, success, and fame left by all the former Lancers.”
Cortes added that there is more to the Green Lancers’ name than just being victorious in basketball games and implored his wards to live up to that.
“We keep on winning our previous games but we have to bear this in mind: that winning is not enough,” Cortes added.
On the other side of the fence, USC head coach Bong Abad said that his team needs to take advantage of this precious opportunity to compete in the semifinals in spite not having five players, who will be serving one-game suspensions because of their roles in the late game incident against the University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF).
“I told them that they have to play their very best even though they are lacking in players. This is an opportunity to play in the semis so I’m motivating them to focus and compete,” said Abad. /bmjo
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