CEBU CITY, Philippines – Maturity of the players is one of the key points that allowed the University of San Carlos (USC) Warriors to end the first round with four wins and two losses in the College division of the ongoing 19th Cesafi Men’s Basketball Tournament.
The Warriors went into the second round armed with a no. 2 standing which they share with this year’s Partners Cup champion Southwestern University (SWU) Phinma Cobras, who took the lead early in the season.
“I think una is the maturity of the players, although mga rookies sila pero mao jud na ako advise nila every game sa lain lain na teams, naay kusog, naay hinay but I like ganahan ko nga underdog, ganahan ko ug kusog, it’s a challenge for us, ang maturity jud sa team,” said USC Warriors head coach Rodulfo “Bong” Abad.
(I think first is the maturity of the players. Although they are rookies, that is what I always advised them on in every game against different teams. There’s a strong one, there’s a weak one, but I like it when we are the underdogs, when we go up against a strong team because it poses as a challenge for us. So, it is really the maturity of the team.)
According to Abad, the first improvement of the team in the first round was that they were able to jell together.
“I think ang first na improvement namo is siempre nakuha ang chemistry of the team,” said Abad.
(Our first improvement is that we got the chemistry of the team.)
Abad shared that they started training during the last two months of the summer, and now the players have found their chemistry and are quite used to his system of play already.
For Abad, joining pre-season tournaments as part of their preparation also helped a lot in the Warriors’ performance in the first round.
“For me dako sad siguro, I mean every game, para nako ang preparation. In the summer, we had three tournaments nga naapilan namo, ni champion mi, dako to nga nakatabang sa team.”
(For me, the preparation is a big help, I mean for every game. In the summer, we competed in three tournaments wherein we ended as champions, and that was a big help.)
Joining pre-season tournaments were a big help, according to Abad, as he mostly had rookies on his lineup for this season.
“It’s 11 rookies naa nato, upat ra ako beterano so dako to nga nakatabang up to now sa among dula.”
(We have 11 rookies, I only have four veterans on the roster so those pre-season tournament really helped our plays now.)
And, despite the lapses in maturity, Abad said that they always try to learn from that.
“I will motivate them not to relax and that we learn in every game,” said Abad.
Watch Abad’s full interview here: