By Jerome Lagunzad
Buoyed by its strong showing in the pre-season, College of St. Benilde is being considered by many as this year’s darkhorse in the 94th NCAA seniors basketball tournament that gets going on Saturday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
But coach TY Tang knows it remains to be seen whether the Blazers really have what it takes to contend with the league’s heavyweights, guarding his optimism as much as possible for them to not get caught up with any kind of hype.
“We had a good showing in the pre-season but I don’t think it will be a real gauge on what will transpire in the coming season,” he said in a recent interview with Tempo-Bulletin, playing down their semifinals finish in the recent Filoil Premier Cup.
“I don’t think all the NCAA teams were serious enough back then. Some of them even experimented some plays and rotations and that’s exactly what pre-season is all about, especially for my veteran counterparts. They are just using those tournaments to prepare t their players for any possible in-game situations.”
Still, hopes are high within the Taft Avenue that the Blazers can finally regain the respect after they toiled in the cellar for more than one and a half decade, with their last trip to the Final Four dating back to 2002 when they even made it to the finals.
Fil-Am forward Justine Gutang, a double-double machine, could be the go-to-guy that the Blazers are looking for while highly-athletic big man Yankie Haruna will be back in the fold after sitting out last year due to an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
