MANILA, Philippines -- Despite bowing out of title contention after suffering a painful 68-71 loss to La Salle Wednesday, coach Nash Racela is proud of the FEU Tamaraws’ campaign in the 76th UAAP season.
"Despite the loss, the most important thing for me is we represented the school better this year and our goal next year is to improve even better," said Racela, who led the Tamaraws to a perfect 7-0 record in the first round of the elimination phase.
"We're happy with them. We told the players to be proud of themselves and I think the community is proud of the way they performed and they know we gave our best," he added.
FEU returned to the Final Four phase of the tournament after missing an appearance in the playoffs last year.
Racela also stated that their on-court play has changed compared to their previous seasons and hopes to build around their renewed basketball for next year's campaign.
"We made the extra passes the whole season and if we do that, you can see that they enjoy the game and acknowledge each other. We hope we can continue with that next year," said Racela.
FEU will lose two players to graduation – former MVP RR Garcia and team captain Gryann Mendoza.