CEBU CITY, Philippines – “Any win is a special win especially in Manila.”
This is the remark of Joselito F. Gullas, the executive vice president of the University of the Visayas when the UV Green Lancers paid a courtesy call to him and Dr. Leopold Gullas Lucero, the university’s comptroller/treasurer, after the Lancers finished third in the recent National Collegiate Championship of the Philippine Collegiate Champions League (PCCL).
The UV Green Lancers crushed the University of the Philippines (UP) Fighting Maroons, 93-63, on Sunday, March 8, 2020, at Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan to clinch the third place.
“It was a very surprising win against UP which is a power team of UAAP, so definitely, it was a good blessing that we were able to do the third. We were never considered a strong team. So, for us to be able to reach that pinnacle, that’s for us a pretty good win,” said Gullas.
UV Green Lancers head coach Gary Cortes said that they had really aimed for that big win against UP because they wanted to show what UV is made of and what they can do.
“Congratulations to the team because of the UV spirit which enabled them to surmount any obstacles. Hopefully, they will continue to go far,” said Lucero.
The courtesy call was done Tuesday, March 10, 2020, at the office of Gullas inside the UV campus.
The team is made up of Ted Saga, the team captain, Clyde Drexler Avanceña, foreign student-athlete Lassina Coulibaly, Michael Heinrich Maestre, Melvin Butuhan, Gabriel George Cometa, Ubert Villaceran, Jancork Cabahug, Jushoa Gellacone, Froiland Maglasang, Monic Soliva, Jiesel Tarrosa, Archie Buscay, Paul John Taliman and Gileant Delator.
Serving as assistant coaches to Cortes are Junil Maglasang and Delfin Pepito.
During the courtesy call, Lucero told the players that he has three requests from them. The first is that they will not allow themselves to be pirated especially by universities in Manila. Second, Lucero appealed to them to finish their respective courses so they will have a degree to fall back on when they will no longer be playing basketball. And, third, not to be swayed by girls because everything has their own timing.
“Success should be in the education,” emphasized Cortes who told the players that “your parents did not rear you or send you to school to be part of the PBA but to have an education.” /rcg