By Angelo Jacinto
COLLEGE of St. Benilde coach Charles Tiu might be grateful for the free ride from Mapua to the NCAA Season 99 semifinals, but that doesn’t mean he’s a completely happy man, especially with what transpired earlier.
The Cardinals’ 77-74 win over the Jose Rizal University Bmbers formally eliminated the Heavy Bombers and towed both idle San Beda and the Blazers into the Final Four despite the latter's late-season struggles.
READ EAC Generals cap first .500 season in a decade with upset of Benilde
The victory came just hours after Tiu saw his team totally lose control in the second half, as they got outgunned by Emilio Aguinaldo College, 77-69, to blow their chance at outright qualification.
To say that the young mentor wasn’t happy would be a terrible understatement.
“I don’t really say too much but I questioned if we have any winners in our team. Because right now, our team is a bunch of losers with no character,” Tiu said.
“Nobody’s playing together, effort’s not there, everybody's getting mad at one another but nobody wants to do the little things. They’re still probably hung up on making the finals last year but that’s long gone. We don’t even look like a playoff team to be honest right now.”
The Blazers took control in the second quarter after limiting the Generals to seven points. But they failed to maintain that feisty effort as the Generals took control in the third period before completely breaking the game wide open in the fourth.
Tiu: 'I don't think we deserve to be there'
The loss was so bad that Tiu wasn’t even sure if they deserved to be in the Final Four, especially if JRU ended up pulling the upset over Mapua.
“I told them that I wouldn’t be surprised that if we ended up playing JRU, JRU would beat us and knock us out of the Final Four and quite frankly, I don’t think we deserve to be there.”
Tiu got a timely assist from the Cardinals in the second game, but there’s no helping the state of the squad that he saw earlier – with the problems even leaking after the game as reigning MVP Will Gozum was seen berating Josh Cajucom post-match.
For the outspoken head coach, the only way to end this is by looking inwards - noting that the only people that can help the players now are themselves.
“Will was getting mad that Josh didn’t pass him the ball, but to be honest it’s just probably the frustration boiling over. I told him, 'Will, you wanna get mad at your teammates? You better start playing,” he said.
“He only wanted to play in the fourth quarter, but when I needed him in the first three quarters he was gone. We can’t keep blaming other people when you have to look at yourself and see how we can get better.”
But the buck doesn’t stop with Gozum – Tiu also challenged his veteran backcourt of Miguel Oczon and Robi Nayve who’s been veritable no-shows in the past couple of games.
“I can’t keep defending all my guys but they’ve got to play better, Oczon has to play better, he hasn’t shot the ball well in the last two games. Robi Nayve has been up and down, you’re cramping up after 15 or 16 minutes, it’s not good for us,” he said.
“At the end of the day, we can’t make shots and we don’t play hard on defense. That has to be the biggest problem right now.”
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