Dandan calls the shots for UP Maroons
MANILA, Philippines - Ricky Dandan, a former University of the Phils. stalwart, has been named coach of the Fighting Maroons in next year’s UAAP men’s basketball competition.
Dandan, who played for the Diliman-based squad when UP won its first and only seniors’ crown in 1985, has vowed to come up with a run-and-gun team that could also play defense.
“I will form a team that will aggressively defend and run for 40 minutes,” said Dandan after he was given his appointment papers by College of Human Kinetics athletic director Ariel Juliano last week.
He will take over the job vacated by Aboy Castro last year.
The appointment of Dandan, a protege of former UP mentor Joe Lipa, came after the Maroons completed a winless campaign, one of the school’s worst ever seasons.
Dandan said he hasn’t been officially introduced to the players but is planning to hold his first practice with the team on Monday.
“I’m going to meet with my coaching staff in a couple of days and I’m planning to hold our first practice as a team on Monday,” Dandan said.
Dandan’s first coaching job came in the late 80s at Polytechnic University of the Philippines and then he took over La Salle-Bacolod a decade later before becoming one of Lipa’s assistants at Ateneo in the late 90s.
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