COACH Nash Racela is trusting the process as he hopes to groom his Adamson guards to soon become elite playmakers.
But before they can reach the level achieved by the Terrence Romeos, the RR Garcias, and the Mike Tolomias, first will be the learning and understanding on how to really play like one.
"Syempre there’s a level of expectation that we have especially from the guards. Ang daming bagay na kailangan pang i-correct," he said on the heels of Adamson's close 71-69 defeat to National University to start the Soaring Falcons' UAAP Season 84 men's basketball tournament campaign.
Adamson drew solid performances from its backcourt, with rookie Didat Hanapi coming out of nowhere with his 20 points and five rebounds, lead guard Jerom Lastimosa dropping 18 points, and sophomore Joem Sabandal chiming in 11 points and four assists.
Yet as solid as those numbers may seem, it still left a lot to be desired for Racela.
"One learning that Jerom had today was he cannot commit useless fouls because we need him on the floor. Kumbaga sa PBA, if you're an import you have to know when to use fouls and kailangan maging smart ka. That’s something he is learning now. It’s not like 2018 and 2019 na second and third option siya, right now he's the main player and kailangan matutunan niya yun."
Joem Sabandal and the Falcons suffer a tough opening-day loss.
Racela also shared his initial assessments to that of Sabandal and Hanapi, saying, "There were moments that [Sabandal] was shining, but what we’re looking for is his consistency. You can’t just have your moments. If you give me stability, thats the kind of moment that we want from them."
Nonetheless, it's all part of what Racela anticipated.
"I think that the players we have now is more into experiential learning. Hindi enough yung laging pinopoint out at pinapakita and this experience today really helped them," he said.
"Actually we’re not putting any kind of pressure on them. My hope as a coach is that moving forward, since they’ve seen now mistakes, we can correct the things that we’ve been emphasizing."
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