UP needs to ‘hurry up’ meshing together, says Perasol

MANILA, Philippines – What was supposed to be an expected win for the UP Fighting Maroons turned out to be their worst loss in UAAP Season 81.

Bannering 9 rookies, the UST Growling Tigers decimated the Diliman-based ballers, 86-72, to end the first round with a 3-4 slate tied with the listless Maroons at fifth place. 

Although UST finished up with a 14-point winning margin, it led by as many as 30 points on the heels of hot shooting from usual suspects CJ Cansino and Renzo Subido.

While UP head coach Bo Perasol didn’t sound too worried after his team got roundly outplayed, he did admit that his hand is hovering over the panic button.

“Right now, I believe we have what it takes to win but it’s going from here to there. It’s a mess,” he said. “That’s why I’m hoping we have the time to put it together in due time so that we could still get the goals that we have put. That’s my personal take on that.”

“They know that they have to do it together, but we’re still trying to figure out how we can do that on both ends,” he continued. “We all know we have what it takes. They know and I know that we can fight back. Probably it’s just part of learning adversity together, but we need to hurry up.”

UP could have possibly ended the first round with a 4-3 winning record at fourth place, but it is now at the lower echelon of the league heading to a brick wall against defending champs Ateneo to open the second round.

Perasol, the Maroons’ third-year tactician, believes that their inconsistencies are simply a case of not being used to a winning culture just yet.

“It’s like we’re still groping around. So I said we cannot let wins be distractions, and we cannot let losses be distractions. For a team that’s not used to this, those things are happening,” he said. “We need to find a way we can overcome that in due time so that we can still do what we intended this season. I still believe that we can do this.”

UP is not shortchanged on talents, but as the saying goes: “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” – Rappler.com