MANILA, Philippines – Thirdy Ravena may have been celebrated by his teammates for powering the Ateneo Blue Eagles to back-to-back UAAP titles, but it wasn’t exactly the same with his group mates off court.  

Before the UAAP Finals, a screenshot from Ravena’s group mate went viral which called out the Ateneo stalwart, pressuring him to win the championship since he did not help out at all in the group work. 

l m a o pic.twitter.com/gVNTbqDqpG

— D (@dtansquared) December 1, 2018

But after sweeping the University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons, the fourth-year student-athlete got back to work by attending his group meeting the following day. 

38 pts, 6 ast, 5 reb, 3 stl

1 GROUP WORK pic.twitter.com/QT8IAnfb92

— V (@caaaaaaarlov) December 6, 2018

And just like on court, it turned out to be a pretty happy ending for Ravena and his group mates. 

“We got an A in our presentation,” said Ravena during his Rappler Talk interview. 

Although the Ateneo star bagged the Finals MVP, he also wanted to give an MVP title to his group mates for understanding his challenging situation and pouring in the work before the best-of-three Finals series ended. 

“I just want to thank my group mates for understanding… I think. I think they understood me but it turned out pretty well,” said Ravena, who exploded for 38 points in Game 2 of the Finals.

“They didn’t kick me out of the group which was fine, I’m happy. That’s it. Just happy to be with them.” 

After a red-shirt year in 2015, Ravena committed himself to being a student-athlete in Ateneo, which taught him a lot about time management. 

The Ateneo forward, however, admitted that it became more difficult for him facing the resurgent Maroons in the Finals. 

“It was pretty hard to juggle that [UAAP and school finals week] especially with the pressure of the whole UP-Ateneo thing, they were sending threats. That was scary,” said Ravena. 

“I think you just have to manage it really, really well especially in terms of emotion because sometimes when you’re studying for a particular finals in your class and you’re thinking about the game, you get really excited, so you don’t get to study.” 

Ravena also has one tip for all student-athletes: “Do your group works first. I think that’s the best advice I can give.” – Rappler.com