Franz Pumaren rips Adamson’s complacency despite miracle win

MANILA, Philippines – After Adamson’s Sean Manganti broke the hearts of the UP Fighting Maroons with a game-winner, the Falcons had many reasons to celebrate as they stretched their perfect run to four games. 

However, none of that mattered to multi-titled UAAP coach Franz Pumaren, who had plenty of reasons to burst the happiness bubble of his wards.

“What I’m trying to say is we allowed UP to dictate the game,” he said in the post-game presser. “We drifted away from what we were supposed to be doing. I think some of our players can attest that we were kinda selfish.”

“We were probably reading too much on social media that we’re so great already, that we’re 3-0,” he continued. “And I’ve been telling them 3-0 is nothing, 4-0 is nothing. Probably if we win the championship they can start acting that way, but the way we played today… we were thinking highly of ourselves.”

Manganti and Jerrick Ahanmisi, the Falcons’ go-to scorers, could only agree.

“I believed that it shouldn’t have even come down to that point,” Ahanmisi said, who finished with 15 points in the win.

“We were down the whole game, but we really kept our poise, our mental toughness. I think that our team is really built together right now, but like I said it really shouldn’t have come down to that point.”

“I think it was the first half, second quarter – in the first quarter too, a lot of guys weren’t running our offense,” quipped Manganti, who finished with a team-high 18 markers. “We weren’t executing, just a lot of one-on-one, that’s not our game plan.”

But the hard-to-please Pumaren did give credit where credit was due, at least for a short while.

“I’m happy for Sean,” he said. “He was feeling sick, he was a not a hundred percent the last time around but in spite of that, he assured me. He played well. We survived. That’s the bottomline.”

“We were lucky to survive this game because of our selfishness, we made it difficult on ourselves,” he repeated. 

The Adamson hype train is moving fast, indeed, but Franz Pumaren is making sure to hit the brakes when it’s needed the most. – Rappler.com