Red-hot UE Warriors start anew in UAAP 2nd round

MANILA, Philippines — Back to zero for the University of the East Red Warriors.

The hottest team in the UAAP Season 87 men’s basketball tournament will have a clean-slate mindset as the second round starts this weekend, head coach Jack Santiago said.

The Red Warriors have won five straight in the tourney after losing their first two games. They are currently in third place behind league leaders La Salle Green Archers and the University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons.

Prior to UE’s cardiac 63-62 win over Adamson on Sunday, Santiago stressed that he talked to his players and replayed possible situations.

“Before we entered the gym kanina, in-explain ko lang sa mga boys yung magiging scenario pag nanalo kami. Hopefully mag-end up kami worst is number 3, or maybe number 2. Depends on the outcome of the next game and in-explain ko rin sa kanila na kung matatalo kami, we’ll be ending up number 5,” he told reporters.

“So, yun yung mga scenario so sinabi ko sa kanila na after the game, Nanalo na kami, sinabi namin na na-achieve na namin everything, 5-2, but sabi ko by next game, 0-0 ulit kami so di kami magrerelax. 0-0 pa rin come second round,” he added.

UE already surpassed the four games they won last season and tied the five wins they clinched two years ago.

The five-game win streak is also UE’s longest consecutive victories, tying the five won a decade prior.

“Well, ako naman ever since sinabi ko dun sa mga bata na ito yung batch namin ng team na I think and I honestly believe na we can beat other teams. So it so happened na that we had two setbacks — two games namin,” he said.

“But ako, naniniwala pa rin ako na kaya ng mga players ko and maybe yung pinakamagandang nangyari sa amin was the when we played against the number one team [defending champions La Salle] and luckily we beat them. So naramdaman na nila na kaya pala namin. So, mula noon trabaho lang kami and we challenged every challenges na darating samin,” he added.

But now, they will have a reset mindset going into the second round.

“Well again, back to zero kami… We’ll be back to reality again, magta-trabaho ulit kami.”

UE will take on La Salle in their second round opener on Saturday, 4 p.m., at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.