New challenge for defending champs

MANILA, Philippines - For coach Juno Sauler, the challenge for La Salle is to improve and get better in all departments of the UAAP senior men’s basketball championships this year.

“It’s not about defending the title,” said Sauler, a La Salle economics graduate and a former Archer cager. “I’m not even thinking about it. Keeping it in mind just adds to the pressure unnecessarily. Winning the championship last year has no connection with what we’re supposed to do this year. Like last season, our goal is to just get better. Our focus is on performance.”

On a personal note, Sauler said he’d like the Archers to work on becoming more efficient and that means attention to detail. “We want to improve in every area of offense and defense, that means increasing our assists, decreasing our turnovers, shooting better from the field and the free throw line,” he said. “There’s a lot of room for improvement. If we do a good job in improving our game, the results will follow. I know the other coaches are calling La Salle the team to beat. As for me, the expectations of other people don’t matter. What’s important is we improve game after game.”

Last season, the only statistical department where the Archers were dominant was in rebounding. La Salle averaged 48.3 boards to top the league. The Archers were third in offense behind FEU and UE and fourth in points allowed behind NU, UST and Ateneo. They got off to a slow start, posting a 3-4 record in the first round with two overtime losses to FEU and UST but swept the second round to barge into the Final Four. The win streak extended to nine games and brought La Salle to the best-of-three series against UST for the UAAP crown.

In the finals, the Growling Tigers drew first blood, 73-72, but the Archers roared back to take Game 2, 77-70, and clinched the title via a 71-69 overtime win in Game 3 before over 23,000 fans at the Mall of Asia Arena. “God made it happen,” said La Salle’s No. 1 patron and San Miguel Corp. chairman Eduardo (Danding) Cojuangco. In Game 3, UST erected a 15-point lead in the third quarter but La Salle refused to yield, sending it into overtime before finally settling the issue with an Almond Vosotros jumper off a Jeron Teng assist.

Sauler submitted a 13-man lineup last year even as the league limit is 16. Teng led the scoring parade with a 15.3 clip followed by Vosotros (13.4), Jason Perkins (12.2), Arnold van Opstal (9.4 with 6.7 rebounds) and Norbert Torres (7.2 with 7.9 rebounds). This season, La Salle’s lineup is up to 14 with the entry of rookies Julian Sargent, Prince Rivero, Terrence Mustre and Abu Tratter and the return of veteran Yutien Andrada who sat out last campaign to recover from an ACL injury. Gone from last year’s cast are L. A. Revilla, Oda Tampus, Gabby Reyes and Luigi de la Paz.  

Teng, Vosotros, Perkins, Van Opstal and Norbert Torres are back with Thomas Torres, Matt Salem, Kib Montalbo and Robert Bolick. Whether it’s purely coincidental that La Salle’s 13-man lineup was for Season 76 (7 + 6) and this year’s 14-man roster is for Season 77 (7 + 7) or not isn’t an issue with the Archers.

“We’re lucky that our four rookies are very versatile,” said Sauler. “They play multiple positions. Julian can play two and three, Prince three and four, Terrence one and two and Abu four and five. That makes our bench deeper.  But the bottom line is still performance. We want everyone to contribute to make the team better.”

Andrada, Norbert Torres and Vosotros are playing their final season of eligibility so they hope to go out with a bang. Sauler’s coaching staff got a boost with the addition of former pro Freddie Abuda who joins assistants Allan Caidic and Jun Limpot. Returning to the staff are Paolo Sauler and conditioning coach Marlon Celis.

Since the Archers bagged the UAAP crown, they’ve been on a sizzling tear. La Salle won the PCCL championship and the Filoil Flying V title. The Filoil victory was just as miraculous as the UAAP triumph. In the preliminaries, the Archers lost to Jose Rizal and Perpetual. La Salle could afford to lose to Perpetual by three in the eliminations and still squeeze into the playoffs by virtue of the quotient system. As it turned out, the Archers lost to Perpetual exactly by three and advanced as the No. 7 seed. If the Archers lost by more than three, they would’ve been eliminated. In the playoffs, La Salle beat No. 2 seed FEU, 94-89, and Southwestern University, 72-64, then came back from eight points down in the fourth period to beat San Beda College, 71-66, for the crown.

Sauler said it’s a brand new UAAP season and the test is for the Archers to prove themselves all over again.