THERE’S no question that University of the East still feels the weight of the world following the suspensions handed to head coach Chris Gavina and Wello Lingolingo.
But assistant coach Alex Cabagnot made it clear that there’s no time to mope for the Red Warriors as they navigate these rough waters being the only winless team so far in UAAP Season 88 men’s basketball tournament.
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“It's difficult and it was evident with the game today,” he said after UE’s 95-76 loss to Far Eastern University on Sunday.
“But we're not gonna lose hope. We're gonna keep going and we're gonna keep fighting and hopefully, we find our stride.”
Cabagnot shared that there were a “whole list of marching orders” Gavina gave to the team, as he served the first of his four-game suspension, and to a degree, the team tried to follow it to a tee.
Still, there’s a great difference between getting those instructions from text messages rather than Gavina barking out commands himself.
“It's really different when it comes from the chief of command, so we're trying our best just to execute his plans. Definitely, we sorely missed them today, not having Wello as well is difficult. So we're gonna just try to keep it together,” said Cabagnot as the staff - which also included RJ Argamino, Paulo Hubalde, Nino Canaleta, Nick Demusis, Louie Vigil, and Melvin Reyes - tried to still make things happen from the sidelines.
Nonetheless, in adversities come opportunities and the coaches were happy so see some shining light in the midst of these struggles: notably the emergence of its rookies Kristoper Lagat and Dylan Despi.
“Wello plays probably like 27-28 minutes, so those minutes will be definitely spread out because he's not there. And I think we found some good pieces,” Cabagnot said.
“I think Lagat's coming around. Despi played well today and this is one of his games that he actually played a lot of minutes. And that was from the direct correlation from Wello being gone.”
Lagat nabbed a career-best 13 points and three assists in the game, while Despi also maximized the 14 minutes he was given to collect eight points, two boards, two assists, and two steals.
Warriors not seeing red just yet
Things may still be bleak for the Red Warriors, but Cabagnot maintained that the focus remains the same for the Recto crew.
“Our goal is to win, realistically or not for people. But as a teacher and as a person that's part of the UE community, you want to say you want to win all the games, right?” he stated.
“We're 0-7 right now and we're coming into the next round. And I'm still optimistic that I want to win all seven games. I mean, that's just coming into it. I don't want to say having that defeatist mentality, I just want to be positive. Our energy and our aura, obviously the kids can feel that. So we want to win and hopefully, we can sweep, God-willing. But that's our hopes.”
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