NEW University of the East head coach Joe Silva charged the Warriors' season-opening humiliation at the hands of University of the Philippines to experience, rating himself below average on Saturday.
"Siguro four o three lang. Talo eh, tambak pa," he said as the Red Warriors dropped their first game in the UAAP Season 81. "Rude awakening."
Silva, though, won't push any panic buttons just yet knowing that with this UP game already under his belt, UE more or less knows what it needs to work on moving forward.
"Maganda yan kasi at least I know I still need to work hard. Marami pang kakaining bigas, at least okay yan for me," he said.
Effort is one of the biggest points Silva is stressing to his team as the Red Warriors slowly lost hold of the game.
Tied at 33 at halftime, UP started to break away in the third quarter, 58-45, before scoring a 29-point victory.
"We lack the effort. Feeling ko, bumigay sila nung fourth quarter. At the end of the third quarter, we were just down by 13 and it was still a winnable game. Pero nung fourth quarter, medyo bumigay na," he said, putting focus on UE's failure to close out on the open court and its inability to find a solution against Nigerian big man Bright Akhuetie.
"What I can’t accept is the 25 fast break points kasi for me, it’s all about the effort. They had 28 second chance points, but that's understandable kasi ever since naman, weakness namin was our bigs because of the other foreign student-athletes so mahirap talaga eh."
Still, Silva is trusting the process, knowing that before UE reaches the pinnacle, it has to first go through the struggles.
"Off the bat naman, I said it’s going to be a struggle. I never said that it was going to be easy," he said. "But I think of it as a challenge and for me, I welcome challenges. That's the nature of basketball, that’s a challenge for me, and I welcome it."
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