For the UAAP Season 87 Finals, the DLSU Green Archers aren’t about to get ahead of themselves despite going 2-0 against the Fighting Maroons in the eliminations.
The DLSU Green Archers remain wary of the UP Fighting Maroons ahead of their best-of-three Finals in UAAP Season 87, with Game 1 set for Sunday, December 8, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Despite holding a 2-0 head-to-head record against the Fighting Maroons in the elimination round this season, La Salle head coach Topex Robinson admitted that it wasn’t a fair barometer of how they compete against their new-age rivals.
In both instances that La Salle won this season, UP as missing a key player. During the first round, it was veteran guard JD Cagulangan who was out due to illness for the Fighting Maroons. Then in round 2, Quentin Millora-Brown was out of the country to mourn the death of his grandfather.
Understanding just how good UP can be with a healthy and complete lineup, Robinson said that they’ll need to be ready this time.
“Again, what’s obvious during those first two meetings was, you know, UP didn’t have a complete lineup. I guess, that’s one thing we haven’t seen. Going back to our FilOil meetings, they beat us twice,” said Robinson, alluding to their preseason matchups.
“That’s one thing that we have to remember. If they’re gonna be a complete team out there, they’re gonna be… Obviously, they came here as the no. 1 team. We’re just slowly catching up at the second spot,” added Robinson.
Both La Salle and UP had some pretty shaky moments heading into the Finals, like the Green Archers losing their last game of eliminations against the NU Bulldogs. Meanwhile, the Fighting Maroons were handed back-to-back losses in the tail-end of the preliminaries.
But now that they’re each back on the winning track after making quick work of their respective Final Four foes, Robinson said that it’s all going to come down to preparation.
“In this Finals, it’s about how we’re gonna be prepared. We know UP is always gonna be all-out and they like to be the best that they could be. And this is just gonna make us better. It’s gonna challenge us and sabi nga namin we don’t really put so much on what the other team will do but we’re just gonna focus ourselves. And that’s what’s important for us,” he said.
Speaking of what they’ll need to improve ahead of the championship clash, Robinson put a pin on rebounding, and with Millora-Brown dictating the boards for UP, the La Salle frontline will have their work cut out for them.
“Well, if you’re gonna look at the stats (against Adamson) we got out-rebounded. That’s something that was keeping us in the eliminations, that we were the no. 1 rebounding team but we got out-rebounded. So that means, you know, we still have a lot of work to do. It’s good that we’re gonna have a few days to prepare for this Finals,” said Robison.
“Again, yun nga ang dami pa naming dapat ayusin. We always make mistakes, [Kevin Quiambao] mentioned about it. Mike [Phillips] mentioned about it.
So it’s just another opportunity for us to learn and really experience growing in the Finals. Only eight guys came from that last year’s finals sa amin, seven are coming in new. So it’s something that could be a challenge for us heading into this Finals,” he continued.
La Salle collides with UP in Game 1 on Sunday, December 8, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. Tip off is at 5:30 p.m.