IN today's college men’s basketball scene, University of the Philippines looks nothing like the team it used to be in the UAAP over the last few decades.
No traces remain from the league’s former resident cellar-dwellers that once had a campus bonfire for a single elimination round victory.
READ: Coach Gold, captain Gerry have always gone together. Here's why
And it’s because in this era, winning games and successive Finals appearances are the norm for the Fighting Maroons whose legions of fans flock match venues en masse day in and day out.
Now with six straight Final Four stints and reaching the championship round in four of the last five seasons, albeit having won it all just once back in Season 84 to end a 36-year title drought, has UP earned its place among UAAP schools with established winning cultures?
State U’s ‘Gold’ era
JD Cagulangan will always be forever be immortalized in the annals of State U for the shot that won them gold.
And even before Goldwin Monteverde led them to the gold, the fifth-year playmaker knew they were about to build something special in UP.
“Nu’ng unang pasok ni coach Gold sa UP, ‘di niya man sabihin na gusto niyang gawing winning culture yung team namin pero mas more on pinaparamdam niya sa’min kung ano ‘yung team na ‘to at kung ano ‘yung ibi-build na culture ng team na ‘to,” Cagulangan bared.
“Naramdaman ko na ‘yun at pinush nila kami nang pinush hanggat narating namin ‘yung mga ganitong bagay.”
For team captain Gerry Abadiano, in his fourth year for State U, winning has already been ingrained within the Fighting Maroons even before their Season 84 title-winning squad.
The goal after their last two championship heartbreaks? Win the crown back to UP.
“Lahat naman siguro napansin na ‘yun nu’ng ilang years na rin. Wala pa kami [sa team], na-build na nila ‘yung winning culture talaga,” Abadiano shared with SPIN.ph.
“Sinu-sustain lang namin and hinihigitan lang namin kung ano ‘yung nagawa na ng mga ibang players noon at coaching staff. Sobrang blessed lang din talaga kami na naging part kami sa ganitong winning culture.”
Whatever it takes
He’s won titles everywhere he went, hence, Monteverde knows just what it’ll take to win even as the competition grows fiercer by the day.
But if you’d ask Coach Gold what UP’s culture actually is, whether it’s already a winning one or still getting there, best believe he’ll stand by one thing in particular about his Fighting Maroons.
They are, indeed, fighters.
“I could say yung culture namin is ‘yung hard work and determination namin of achieving yung goal namin,” Monteverde said.
“Ito ‘yung kultura na meron kami. Whatever it is or whatever it takes, we'll do everything we can to achieve it.”
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