Falcons doing Du30: Change is Coming

MANILA, Philippines - Adamson has lost 45 of its 56 games in the last four seasons, certainly not quite a good number for a team hungry for title.

But by tapping multi-titled coach Franz Pumaren and with eight holdovers and a bunch of promising rookies, change is coming for the Falcons.

Pumaren came in to replace Mike Fermin with hopes of bringing and instilling the same winning attitude he put on when he steered La Salle, his former team, to five UAAP championships.

“We just have a modest goal, to win the championship,” said Pumaren, who left La Salle in 2009 and then coached in the PBA from 2011 to 2014, in jest. “Seriously, we hope we can compete and erase the idea of being happy already by just competing or almost winning.

“No, ever since I was a player, even in business, I was always a competitive guy, we have to make sure we compete from opening to final buzzer, not just the first 35, 36 minutes,” he added.

Before Pumaren took over, the Falcons were one of the two whipping teams in the league, finishing sixth (3-11), seventh (4-10), last (1-13) and last (3-11) in the last four seasons.

When Pumaren took over, Adamson has shown significant signs of improvement and placed among the top contenders in the pre-season tournaments.

With eight holdovers, including JDee Tungcab, Harold Ng, Dawn Ochoe, Christian Bernardo, Simon Camacho and Papi Sarr, the Falcons could bank on their experience with Pumaren hoping to draw the fire of the youth from rookies former La Salle player Terence Mustre, Nicholas Paranada, Jimboy Pasturan, Robbie Manalang, Jerrick Ahanmisi and Sean Maganti.

Manalang and Ahanmisi churned out impressive showing during the pre-season with the former showing superb playmaking skills and the latter displaying shooting skills.

“We have eight rookies and eight veterans but the veterans didn’t play major minutes last time, except for Papi Sarr,” said Pumaren. “Hopefully we can compete this year. Basically, we’re here to bring excitement to UAAP and the school itself.”