Fighting Maroons can only get better

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DESPITE notching two straight wins to wind up its elimination bid, University of the Philippines coach Goldwin Monteverde maintained the Fighting Maroons are far from done.

“A coach will never be satisfied, especially coach Gold. I guess, it’s just a part of his greatness, so to speak, as a coach. You know, second, that’s what coach Gold really wanted,” UP deputy coach Christian Luanzon, who spoke in lieu of Monteverde, said. “After those two losses, more than the Xs and Os, is really to compete and if there was a message sent during the practices, iyon ang nasa top of the list.

“Like I said, the last two games, I thought that was evident for us. UE for example, we thought that in stretches of the game, we had a chance to sort of blow them out, but they just wouldn’t quit and obviously, this game meant a lot more for them,” he added.

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The Maroons dumped the University of the East Red Warriors 77-67 last Wednesday night in the 87th UAAP basketball tournament.

The win enabled UP to end with an 11-3 mark after the elimination and will be the No. 2 seed armed with a twice-to-beat advantage in the Final Four opposite the third-ranked University of Santo Tomas.

Top seed and defending champion La Salle, also armed with a win-once incentive in the Last Four, will face either the Red Warriors or Adamson University.

UE can still clinch a coveted Final Four berth for the first time since 2009 via a playoff for the fourth seed if Ateneo beats Adamson today at The Arena in San Juan.

UE finished the eliminations with a 6-8 record, while the Soaring Falcons are carrying a 5-8 slate. If Adamson wins, it will face UE in a knockout match for the last Final Four slot.

If there’s one thing going in the way of the Katipunan-based five, it’s momentum, according to Luanzon.

“Every time you head into the Final Four with two straight wins, our confidence should be there. But you know, as cliche as it sounds, we’re just gonna take this one practice at a time and just like any other loss, wherein you’re gonna have to move forward and forget about it and learn from your mistakes,” Luanzon said. “Same thing with a win, we’re gonna have to move forward from this because pagdating ng Final Four, we’re gonna treat that as a game.”

The Maroons’ semis bonus will also be useless if they fail to make good use of it.

“Even though we have the twice-to-beat advantage, it’s a do-or-die game for us. So, it’s important for us in eight days, sa 30, so, seven or a week,” Luanzon said.

“That our daily mindset is always right because nandito na kami, we’ve got one foot in the door—the goal was to make it to the Final Four and obviously, the next step is to get into the championship. So those are three big steps.”

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