MANILA, Philippines – Every dog has its day, as they always say. Or every falcon has its…feast?
Whatever the case may be, the Adamson Soaring Falcons, after winning their second fourth-seed playoff out of an astounding three-season stretch in UAAP men’s basketball, are back in the Final Four in yet another underdog campaign.
The goal remains ever so simple on paper: disrupt, if not somehow end altogether, the title-retention bid of the mighty La Salle Green Archers starting Saturday, November 30.
Head coach Nash Racela, a former UAAP champion coach and architect of the Falcons’ last three contention campaigns, knows very well that nothing is impossible, and that the previous phrase is no mere cliche, especially after his team rebounded from a 3-7 record to somehow still enter the semifinals.
Never mind that the Falcons lost to the Archers in their two Season 87 meetings so far by an average margin of 27.5 points. Never mind that La Salle has both the back-to-back MVP in Kevin Quiambao and the MVP runner-up in Mike Phillips.
Stars don’t win games alone. Teams do, and Racela is confident that his group has what it takes to still control their fates in the face of yet more overwhelming odds.
“The good thing about it is we don’t have to bring [the losing margins] to the Final Four. We just leave it at that, so that’s our mentality,” he said after the Falcons blew out the reeling UE Red Warriors, 68-55, to earn the fourth seed last Wednesday, November 27.
“The next game will be different. Hopefully, we give them a challenge and hopefully beat them. We give ourselves a chance. I know these players. They’ll be ready to do their part.”
With an assembly line of excellent role players like Cedrick Manzano, AJ Fransman, and Monty Montebon, the Falcons have no Quiambao-like star to rely on, which may either spell doom or be a boon in an ever-unpredictable 40-minute stretch of UAAP basketball.
Racela, however, would obviously rather believe that such a situation is an advantage, especially after his key cogs earned four wins in their last five games, including three blowout affairs.
“It started when players started embracing what we’re preaching,” he continued. “Well, they haven’t totally embraced it, but slowly, they’re learning how to play together.”
“I just knew coming into this season, we had a lot of talent in our team,” Montebon added. “I know not a lot of people coming into the season thought that, but I think there were a couple of games during preseason where I was like, okay, this team could go far into the season.”
Beyond him, Manzano, and Fransman, the Falcons also lean on other stellar rotation pieces like OJ Ojarikre, Matty Erolon, and Royce Mantua, among others — every single one crucial to preserving Adamson’s winning culture.
“I think we all had to put it together,” Montebon continued. “The first round, it took a little bit of time but then, the second round, we started getting a little bit together. Just the chemistry growing and then the camaraderie, that has been growing as well.”
Come Saturday evening, all this talk may still well have been for nothing. La Salle could, in all likelihood, still march back to the finals and Adamson could head back to the drawing board as many would reasonably expect.
But as their last three seasons have proven, if the Falcons are going down, they will certainly not go quietly. They will shoot their shot as long as they have one, and who knows? Maybe they score some prey along the way after all. – Rappler.com
