BO Perasol was apologetic to his side for failing to live up to his words after he was ejected in UP's 87-79 defeat to Ateneo on Wednesday.
The seasoned mentor blew his gasket and charged at the referee on what he felt was a no-call on Bright Akhuetie's dunk on William Navarro at the six-minute, 56-second mark of the fourth quarter.
His actions led to his eventual disqualification, leaving the Fighting Maroons without their head coach for the remainder of the game and in turn, a one-game suspension to be served on UP's game on Sunday against UST.
"I was emphasizing to my team na composure and I apologized to them because I was the one who first lost it. No matter what happens, I think I had to be accountable to them," he said.
"No matter how bad the calls are going to be, it's going to happen. The disparity of the fouls called on us, the disparity of the free throws -- it's all part of the game. I just had to be better as a coach. I have to make sure that I will be with them during those times because this is just the second game."
Perasol has had enough on calls he felt wasn't made for them as UP had to play catch-up for the whole second half, and to him, the ejection should serve as a statement that he couldn't let those incompetencies slip away.
"Sunod-sunod na eh. I think Bright got fouled in there, and then the landing spot foul (that wasn't called). I don't know what were in their minds, but I wanted to make sure that they understand: I'm not going to stand in there and watch them lose because they are not calling it," he lamented.
"You can't just be inefficient with what you do and let the other parties understand. We have to be efficient in what we do."
Despite the loss, the Fighting Maroons' first in UAAP Season 81, Perasol was proud with how his side performed against the defending champions even without him calling the shots down the stretch.
"I have to commend my guys for fighting against the defending champion who isn't expected to lose in the first game but then again, lost and was raring to get back at anybody," he said. "Out of ten, I have to rate my team's fight as a nine. I think we stopped fighting in the last one or two minutes, but we were in the game in last five minutes and we were down by just five points."
"I think that we made sure that we fought hard. I think we had the right attitude going into the game, but it's just that we lost discipline in the end. So, we had lots of things to learn and this is going to be a learning process coming into the next games."
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