TALENT, alone, won't cut it if University of the Philippines once again wants to make a run to the championship this UAAP Season 82.
That's the realization Fighting Maroons coach Bo Perasol said after his side's disappointing 85-69 defeat to University of Santo Tomas on Saturday.
"We don't deserve to win that game, plain and simple," he said. "UST just outplayed us. It just showed the crack on our team and what we need to address."
The loss left a bad taste on Perasol's mouth, especially with the way UP has performed in this first two games.
Despite pulling off a 61-55 win over FEU in the opener, the soft-spoken mentor acknowledged that his side has been on a "survival mode" in these outings to open the season.
"We kept on trying, we kept on fighting, but our goal is not just to survive a game, our goal is more than that," he said.
"My perspective is not just about winning against UST, it's about how are we going to bring that kind of game for the rest of the first round. Knowing the way we played, I don't think that was something we are going to bring for the next few games that we have. We need to make some good adjustments."
And for Perasol, he believes the antidote to UP's woes begins on teamwork on both ends of the floor.
"We need to share the ball more. We really need to really play good defense. We're trying to watch everybody make things happen," he said as the Fighting Maroons have averaged only 15.5 assists and allowed their foes to shoot 37-percent from the field.
"If Juan (Gomez de Liano) makes a shot, Ricci (Rivero) makes the shot, Bright (Akhuetie) makes the shot, we're all watching them and hoping that things will happen the right way. Kasi that's the tendency when you know you have very good teammates, but at the end of this, you know that you have very good opponents also. So we have to find a way to make things work, make things happen for us."
UP looks to fix those woes in the next eight days before going back to action next Sunday against Adamson.
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