THE unflattering trend of UAAP coaches taking shots at the league’s officiating in Season 88 has reached its boiling point.
UE head coach Chris Gavina went ballistic in the aftermath of a sour 111-110 overtime loss to La Salle on Wednesday.
What fueled his ire most apart from the Red Warriors’ 21-point meltdown was the contentious sequence that saw Kean Baclaan go down with an ailing right knee upon drawing contact with Wello Lingolingo.
The latter was eventually handed a flagrant foul that ejected him from the game.
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Gavina’s rant was a mouthful of expletives that summed up his reaction on how a hard-fought match took a sharp turn due to pivotal on-the-fly decisions from the referees in the home stretch.
“I hope these three referees never f— ref again in any of our games,” Gavina said.
“It was a complete disservice for the outcome of this game and the beauty of the competition was taken away because you call a [flagrant foul] on one of our best players on a loose ball?"
"I watched the video. They told me that Wello jumped f— purposely on [Kean] Baclaan on a loose ball? Get the f— out of here. There's no way. You watch that video again. There's no way when there hasn't been a whistle called," he continued.
“Everyone's going for the ball, everyone's going after it, call a regular foul. You call an unspo[rtsmanlike foul] on a play like that? Wello had 24 points at that moment. 24. They're supposed to be the best of the best? Get the f— out of here. Hell no.”
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Call for accountability
While the neophyte UE coach acknowledge his side’s biggest lapse in blowing a huge lead and ultimately losing the game, Gavina believes it was unfortunate that the fate of the ballgame was left to be called by, in his words, ‘three idiots on the f— floor.’
Given how he isn’t the first coach to take aim at league referees this season, that alone should be enough cause for the UAAP to tidy up and intervene with reparative measures as far as officiating is concerned.
“Everyone's going for the ball, everyone's going after it, call a regular foul. You call an unspo on a play like that? Wello had 24 points at that moment,” Gavina said.
“They're supposed to be the best of the best? Get the f— out of here. Hell no. It took away our effort. Yes, we squandered a 21-point lead but hold these refs to their accountability. I'm tired of it. It's not just me. It's not just me who's voicing this. I'm not the first coach who said it all week long," he added.
“We talked about leaving the outcome of these games and the beauty of these games to the players, but what's happening? There's three idiots on the f— floor and they got nothing to even explain to me.”
He even went as far as saying that UE’s ‘non-Big Four’ stature played part in how calls hardly go their way, at least in his view.
“You're not giving us calls because we're not one of these top four teams? My guys played with so much pride today and then one of my guys gets taken away. For what? An unbelievable f— call,” he said.
“Every single person that watches that video tonight is going to ask why was Wello Lingolingo thrown out.”
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