MANILA, Philippines – For NCAA champion Letran coach Aldin Ayo, the recipe for success in college basketball is to prioritize values, academics and sports – in that order – for players to excel on the hardcourt.
Ayo, 38, said what brought the Knights to the title this past season was their commitment to play together and become closer to God. A former seminarian in his home province of Sorsogon, Ayo said spirituality is a main ingredient in making players believe they can achieve and outdo themselves.
Ayo said he encountered turbulence during the recent best-of-three Finals against San Beda College. In Game 2 which the Red Lions took, 68-61, guard Rey Nambatac was scoreless but Ayo said he contributed in other departments. “Rey is one of our Big Three with Mark Cruz and Kevin Racal,” said Ayo. “Although he couldn’t score, Rey did other things like play tough defense, rebound, pass, screen. We lost Game 2 but Rey came back strong in Game 3 which we won (85-82 in overtime). It was the same thing with Mark. Throughout the eliminations, he came off the bench. Mark was feeling down before our last game against Perpetual. It was an important game because if we won, we would get a twice-to-beat advantage in the Final Four. I talked to Mark, encouraged him and told him he would start for the first time in the season against Perpetual. He won the game (93-64) and Mark had 18 points and eight assists. I was very proud of Mark when he was named Finals MVP.”
Ayo said there is no-short cut to success and Letran’s first NCAA championship in 10 years came through hard work. “I called practice on Sundays because I wanted the team to also be together for Sunday Mass,” he said. “For me, it was all about hard work. My philosophy is everything starts with defense. I got our team to press and trap because that’s the hardest to learn in defense. If you master that, any kind of defense will be easy to learn. That takes a lot of commitment to sacrifice. During a game, we don’t really press all the time. In the Finals, San Beda averaged about 30 turnovers but we only had about 11 steals a game, meaning the other errors came from mental mistakes because of our pressure.”
In the regular season, Letran forced an average of 27.6 turnovers on opponents with its relentless pressure defense. San Beda took the brunt of it in the Finals. “We were the underdog in the Finals,” said Ayo. “San Beda had Ola (Adeogun), Baser (Amer), Art (de la Cruz), Jvee (Mocon), Dan (Sara) and other guys. We were at a disadvantage in terms of size. When we played San Beda in the playoff to determine No. 1 in the Final Four, we lost but we took the opportunity to study what they were doing. We knew the more important thing was to be ready to play them in the Finals.”
Ayo said before joining Letran, he was an U12 coach in Sorsogon. In 2012, he was named Coach of the Year for the Jr. NBA program and captured the eye of Glenn Capacio. It was Capacio who brought Ayo to Kia as the fourth assistant coach in the PBA last season and to Letran as head coach. At Letran, Ayo assembled a staff that included another former Kia assistant coach Louie Gonzalez and Capacio as consultant. Ayo, Gonzalez and Capacio eventually left the Kia franchise. One of Ayo’s tasks at Kia was to serve as video coordinator, the same break-in job that Erik Spoelstra had with the Miami Heat.
Ayo said all he asked from the Knights was to play hard, tough and physical because of his defensive orientation. “Tough, not rough,” he said. “But more than anything else, I wanted the players to enjoy themselves on the court. If you’re not enjoying, it will show in the way you play. Of course, you only enjoy if you’re winning. I don’t think you’ll enjoy if you’re losing. Focus is essential in any game particularly when you’re coming back from a deficit or even if you’re trying to preserve a lead in the final minutes. Discipline is key. In our system, we don’t depend on any one player. We win as a team. We want our defense to dictate what the other team will do in offense. When we play offense, we read and react. We read what the defense is and we execute against it.”
Ayo said he put a premium on team bonding at Letran. “Before the season, we took trips to La Union, Batangas and Quezon to play provincial or barangay teams to toughen up,” he said. “That’s all we could afford to do. But we got closer as a team. I learned a lot from my experience at Letran as a player from my coaches Binky Favis, Louie Alas and Mollet Pineda. Those three coaches had different styles so I learned something from every one. I also had teammates whom I learned from. We won the NCAA title in 1998 and 1999 so I learned from that experience. I was in residence during Willie Miller’s last year so we never played together but I learned from him at practice and just hanging out. I learned from my teammates like Kerby Raymundo, Jason Misolas and Chris Calaguio. As a coach, I read a lot of books and try to learn from masters like Mike Krzyzewski.”
An announcement will be made soon on the next chapter in Ayo’s coaching storybook. Wherever he goes, Ayo said he will always be grateful to Letran for instilling the values of discipline, hard work and spirituality. Ayo said if a college player embraces the importance of values and academics, excelling in basketball will be a lot easier to do.