Aldin Ayo praises coaching rival Jamike Jarin after UAAP clash

MANILA, Philippines – Since the appointment of NCAA champion coach Jamike Jarin to the UAAP’s NU Bulldogs was announced, headlines pointed toward his inevitable confrontation with longtime rival Aldin Ayo, coach of the defending champion DLSU Green Archers.

Both coaches are known for ruling the roost in the NCAA, with Ayo’s Letran Knights famously breaking Jarin’s championship 5-peat with the San Beda Red Lions last year.

Right after tip-off, fans knew they were in for a treat that only an Ayo-Jarin matchup can deliver.

Employing the same run-and-gun offense (or run-and-execute, as Coach Ayo would like it to be called), both teams went lights-out with a barrage of drives and threes. By halftime, DLSU held a 65-61 lead, good enough to be a final score for some other matchups in the league.

The relentless back-and-forth did not die down at intermission, as NU shot out to a 21-6 run only to be countered by a 22-8 run by the men in green. Shot after shot fell as the ball moved crisply on both ends, much to the crowd’s delight. By the end of the third quarter, it was a close 91-88 DLSU lead.

That score is good enough to wrap up a PBA game, but Ayo and Jarin were far from done. After a few more possessions trading buckets, an Aljun Melecio trey broke the 100 barrier for DLSU, 102-94, with a full 5 minutes left in regulation.

But NU still shot themselves back. It was only until the shot clock was turned off that DLSU finally secured the lead and in turn, the victory. After 4 white-hot quarters of basketball excellence, Ayo’s Archers trumped Jarin’s Bulldogs 115-109.

Such a historic face-off carried with it historic statistics. According to the league’s resident statistician Pong Ducanes, it was the first UAAP game in 11 years where both teams scored at least a hundred points.

Coincidentally, NU was also involved in that last game, where they defeated the UP Fighting Maroons 107-104 way back in 2006. Aside from the bloated score, the two teams also experienced 11 deadlocks and 14 lead changes.

For 40 minutes, the UAAP got an eye-opening sample size when identical coaching styles clash in a game. Both teams sped up and slowed down accordingly to match the other. In the end, it was heart, not the playbook, that won the game for DLSU. They won, sure, but they could not just pull away.

 In the postgame conference, Coach Ayo revealed that he did have a very hard time against Coach Jarin.

“Siguro kung titingnan ‘nyo ‘yung mga nanood kanina, parang nanood ng lawn tennis, talagang takbuhan,” he said. (If you saw those who were watching, it’s like they were watching lawn tennis. [We’re] just running all over.)

“We have the same system,” he added. “Coach Jamike is a very good coach. Kanina, ‘di ko alam kung anong ilalabas ko pa sa bulsa ko eh. Kung kalaban mo si Coach Jamike, talagang pipigain ‘yung utak mo eh.” (Earlier, I didn’t know what else to pull out of my pockets. If you’re facing Coach Jamike, your brain would really be squeezed.)

Thankfully for fans, this was only the first of hopefully many battles between the two top-level coaches. For the difficult task of figuring the other man out, we’ll leave that to them. We’ll just sit back and enjoy the next chapter in their pursuit to further greatness. – Rappler.com