USJ-R head coach Leode Garcia talks to his team during practice at the USJ-R Coliseum. | CDN Digital file
CEBU CITY, Philippines—In sports, it is not unusual to see strong teams having a dismal season at some point.
Take the case of last year’s Cesafi collegiate basketball runner-up, University of San Jose Recoletos (USJ-R) Jaguars.
Having fought the then three-peat seeking University of the Visayas (UV) Green Lancers to Game 3 for last year’s title, USJ-R was looked up to as one of the contenders for this year’s title.
However, after opening their first round campaign with a 72-67 win over the Cebu Institute of Technology University (CIT-U) Wildcats last August 31, 2019, the Jaguars have not won the rest of their games and eventually ended the first round with a win-loss record of 1-5.
They finished last alongside the Wildcats, not a promising spot to be in with the action to intensify in the second round.
“So far ang among team lacks maturity pa jud. Dili consistent, kung unsa ang gameplan ipabuhat, medyo di ka sustain, ang gusto namo mahitabo, sa among parctice, ma run namo sa practice pero problema inig actual, so diha nimo makita nga maturity sa mga bata wa pa jud mo level up ug maayo,” said USJ-R head coach Leode Garcia.
(So far, our team still lacks the maturity. We’re not consistent, they cannot yet sustain the game plan that we want them to follow. They can follow it during the practice but they cannot do it in the actual and that’s where you see that our maturity of the players hasn’t leveled up yet.)
Well, to be fair, USJ-R lost a lot of its veterans during the off season. In fact, they have nine new players in its roster.
According to Garcia, they have a lot of catching up to do in the second round but it will entirely depend on the team’s determination.
“Ang akong giingon sa team kung di nato ma realize kung unsay nahitabo sa first round wa jud gihapon tay kapaingnan. Mao na ako giingnan sila na kung puede kamo nay makatabang ana sa inyong kaugalingon, labi na sa among mga players.”
(I told the team that if we don’t realize what happened in the first round, we will still be going nowhere. I told them that if they can at least help themselves.)
For Garcia, he said it is very important that they really follow the game plan especially during the actual games as the coaching staff can only do so much.
“Kami na coaching staff, kompleto na mi, gihatag na namo tanan, game preparation, practice preparation, conditioning preparation, naa na tanan. Ang ilaa na lang jud is application, ang pag apply ra jud, ma ra jud na.”
(We, the coaching staff, we have completely provided them with everything, game preparation, practice preparation, conditioning preparation, everything is there. All they need to do is to apply the plan, that’s it.
So far, the USJ-R Jaguars have opened the second round with a 77-61 thrashing of the University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) Panthers last October 5.
However, they bowed to the University of Cebu (UC) Webmasters, 80-74, last October 12.
With two games done in the second round, the USJ-R Jaguars have to win their remaining four games for a chance to be in the top 4 and advance to the semifinals. /bmjo