CSB coach Velasco looks at the positives despite 0-5 start

MANILA, Philippines – The CSB Blazers are off to their worst start in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament under coach Gabby Velasco following a one-sided defeat to the San Beda Red Lions, 90-63, on Friday, July 15.

The previous worst start to a season for the Blazers under Velasco, who’s been the head coach since 2013, was 0-3. Already with 5 losses in as many games in Season 92, St Benilde is in danger of missing the NCAA Final Four for the 14th straight year.

“It’s like this e. We are expecting other guys to step-up. We are expecting people to get certain minutes, people will get less minutes, things like those. Unfortunately, it did not happen in the very beginning,” Velasco said after the loss to San Beda, in a game where he went with different rotations compared to past contests.

“Along the way, what we saw was some people were doing this and we were okay with it but some that we expected to deliver did not happen.”

The Blazers shot only 31% from the field and committed 36 turnovers which led to 26 points for the Red Lions – close to the difference of the 27-point blowout.

“Up to now, right now, our problem is we still need to find the right combination and find the people who will step-up consistently,” said Velasco.

The head coach, nonetheless, found positives in the beatdown by highlighting his team’s aggressiveness. CSB also out-rebounded San Beda 52-47 and forced the Red Lions to 25 turnovers of their own.

Clement Leutcheu led St Benilde with 19 points and 15 rebounds, while Yankie Haruna pitched in with 17 points and 3 boards.

“Today, I can say [that] we were aggressive… I can say, in general, [that] we were able to attack San Beda’s press and get lay-ups but the problem is there [were] times na nawawala kami sa sarili namin (we forgot who we are supposed to be).

“Tapos (Then) the thing is,” later added the head coach, “yung malalapit na shots, we were missing a lot. We lost by 27 points but it’s not really like the way we lost against JRU. 30 points yun at hindi bumabababa. Today, nababa namin sa 15 and without those turnovers baka bumaba pa to single-digits. In the end, the aggressiveness was there at hindi lang namin ma-finish. The turnovers also killed us.”

(Then the thing is, the shots close to the rim, were were missing a lot. We lost by 27 points but it’s not really like the way we lost against JRU. That was a 30-point game and the lead din’t go down. Today, we were able to get it down to 15 and without those turnovers, it may have even gone down to single digits. In the end, the aggressiveness was there and we just weren’t able to finish. The turnovers also killed us.)

The next chance CSB will get for its first win of the season will be on Thursday, July 21, against the LPU Pirates. With a young roster in tow, Velasco is hopeful the Blazers don’t take too long to mature and remain optimistic in the hunt for their first win.

“I just hope that as we go along, magmamature din kami (we will mature). We have to be mature quick even though we are young,” he said.

“Hopefully, we still remain positive,” he later added. “We need to leave everything behind, learn from it, and then apply whatever we learned from the past to our next game.” – Rappler.com