Thinking Aloud

Ang tawag namin sa UST batch from 1993-1997 (btw, kami un) ay  mga lucky charms. Why?

First year, UST won the crown after years of drought via a remarkable sweep of the UAAP eliminations. The main Tigers then were Dennis Espino, Rey Evangelista, Siot Tanquincen (crush ko nun), Bal David and Udoy Belmonte. All made it to the PBA although only Dennis and Rey remain active. Siot of course was a champion coach for Ginebra and is now Jong’s Deputy. Udoy played  a number of years with SMB but I haven’t heard much about him lately. Same goes for Bal. I wonder where he is now? Marie is a die-hard Bal David fan. Tama ba ako? The final game had the Tigers facing the Falcons headed by Kenneth Duremdes (teka, tama ba?) and 7-foot giant, EJ Feihl (who started out as a Tiger).

For the next three years, under the leadership of Coach Aric del Rosario, the Tigers reigned the UAAP Men’s Basketball Competitions. The Archers of course would never forget the three years that they faced UST in the finals which they all lost. I remember getting into arguments with some DLSU supporters on the two occassions. Syempre, nangyari un after the game. Nanalo kami so malakas loob. La Salle’s stars then were Jason Webb, Tyrone Bautista, Mark Telan and Luigi Trillo. Don Allado was a bumbling rookie that time.

But then again the stars graduated and while some new players came to play for the golden tigers from Espana, they were not able to sustain the success of their predecessors. Exciting players Cyrus Baguio and Nino Gelig electrified the UAAP and Alwyn Espiritu provided the muscle but their efforts were not enough. The best finish they had was runner up to DLSU in 1999.

Fast forward to 2006. UST unveiled a new coach in the person of former Tiger Pido Jarencio known for being a member of Ginebra Team in the PBA. I don’t like him because he got into a number of skirmish with my forever love Jolas. But then again, I am a Thomasian and Tiger by heart. So while I wasn’t able to watch the games (they used to show UAAP games in abs-cbn now), I followed the news and was ecstatic when they won over the league leading Blue Eagles and then got one over the Warriors, the second top team in the league.

UST entered the final four eventually and faced UE Warriors who had a twice to beat advantage. As we all know now, the Tigers defied the odds and won twice over the Dindo Pumaren-coached Warriors.

Game One of the Best of Three showdown starts this Sunday.

GO TIGERS! GO USTE!

This entry was posted on Friday, September 22nd, 2006 at 2:37 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.