CHICAGO - Despite a turbulent 0-14 record as the head coach of the University of the East Red Warriors, it looks like Chris Gavina is going to keep his clipboard.
For one more year.
Before you choke on your New Year's Eve party leftovers and reckon whether you're reading Ripley's Believe It Or Not, take a deep breath.
This development is just another weekday at Recto, a faded basketball powerhouse that last made the UAAP men's Final Four in 2009, a stretch of immense suffering you normally hear at bible class.
READ Gavina glad to see foundations being set in place despite UE's winless season
Back in 2022, the Season 84 after the pandemic, Jack Santiago was also brought back by the school after toting a similarly miserable 0-14 won-lost slate.
This kind of recycling will not enter the deja vu hall of fame, but there is a method to the madness.
NEW YEAR, NEW START.
Per multiple sources, Gavina was given a second-chance due to several factors including the fact that UE really didn't, and probably still doesn't, have the resources to recruit the best talents.
Gavina, who inherited the team's core players from the Santiago regime, signed a one-year deal worth a reported P300,000 a month, a source familiar with the negotiations told me.
For reference, the rich schools in the UAAP pay their coaches more money with normally a three-year guarantee that would send an accountant scampering for an extra calculator.
Following the retirement of longtime sports director Rod Roque. UE is hoping that Gavin can walk in lockstep with Roque's replacement - Leo Viajar - and turn things around.
These are the reasons why it made sense to bring back Gavina despite his fruitless Season 88 campaign that was blighted even more by an expletive-filled, post-game rant that earned him a four-game suspension.
Besides, UE is no longer the "dream job" it used to be when the university was basking in the afterglow of stars such as Allan Caidic, Jerry Codinera, James Yap and Paul Lee, etc.
There's no star coach out there drooling at the opportunity of leading the Red Warriors at a discounted rate.
GAVINA IS HIGHLY QUALIFIED.
In fairness to Gavina, he can coach and has earned his spurs in the PBA and in Taiwan.
On the strength of his play-calling, UE was in several close games. And when it comes to motivating his players and squeezing the last drop of talent, he can talk ears off.
But until he has that signed contract extension document on hand by the end of this month, nothing is official,
"You never know talaga. Mahilig sa last-minute changes ang mga boss sa UE," a team insider told me on Sunday morning.
Which explains why the school paraded more candidates than a beauty pageant after not renewing Santiago's contract at the conclusion of Season 87.
There will be no one on stage this time, just Chris Gavina.
Seems odd, if not crazy, but what the heck, everybody deserves a second chance.
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