THE College of St. Benilde-San Beda NCAA Season 100 Final Four duel obviously had a shade of a Converge - TNT showdown.
The game featured two programs which have imprints of both the FiberXers and Tropang Giga made possible by their respective head coaches in Charles Tiu and Yuri Escueta.
Tiu also serves as one of the deputy coaches at Converge while Serbian coach Rajko Toroman, who acts as consultant to the Blazers, also holds the same capacity with the FiberXers.
The Blazers also had the Strong Group Athletics as their major backers, who is owned by the father and son tandem of Frank and Jacob Lao. Jacob of course, is the current team manager of Converge.
Escueta is one of Chot Reyes’ assistants at TNT, even as program consultant Norman Black once acted as head coach of the telecommunication franchise and remains a top consultant of TNT sister team Meralco.
Asked about it, Escueta saw a lot of semblance.
“Meron, oo. Sana lang may RHJ (Rondae Hollis Jefferson) ako,” the San Beda coach said in jest.
"Of course, yung way na mag-coach si Charles, merong semblance,” he added. “Sabi ko nga kay Charles galingan niya para makapag-champion siya.”
The Blazers made things look easy as they scored a one-sided 79-63 win to earn a return trip to the finals in two years.
Tiu admitted though, he didn’t thought about a Converge-TNT setup in the Blazers’ Final Four duel with the Red Lions.
“Hindi ko naman naisip yun. Ako Benilde and San Beda lang talaga,” he said.
“We just really wanted to beat San Beda kasi ako that’s only my focus, nothing else. Just for my school.”
Whatever, this is one instance when Converge got the better of TNT in the NCAA field.
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