NEW GROWLING Tigers head coach Aldin Ayo will face his biggest challenge yet – to rebuild a team coming off its worst season in UAAP history.
Ayo, who jumped ship from the De La Salle University Green Archers to UST, admitted that turning a one-win team around is a “big responsibility.”
“We haven’t achieved anything yet. I think hindi [dapat] congratulations [‘yung pagbati], they should wish me luck because this will not be easy,” Ayo told the Varsitarian in an exclusive interview.
Ayo and his coaching staff met with the Tigers and school officials for the first time last Jan. 11 at the Quadricentennial Pavillion.
“Rest assured that everyone will be given equal opportunities so walang problema. We’re going to have the whole season for that and we’ll make it final before the UAAP starts,” he said.
The 40-year-old coach said that he would employ the same full-court defense and run and gun offense that brought him two championships with the Letran Knights and the Green Archers in 2015 and 2016.
Practice sessions began last Jan. 12 and will serve as an evaluation period for the coaching staff.
“From now on every practice will serve as a form of evaluation. Every practice we’ll conduct, we’ll make sure na kita namin kung sino ang deserving, sinong fit, at sinong makakatulong sa team natin,” Ayo said.
The Varsitarian broke the news of Ayo’s confirmation to coach the Tigers last Jan. 5. Details of the contract are yet to be finalized until the coaching staff is complete.
Ayo will inherit a team that had eight rookies last year and struggled to close out games.
Last year, the Tigers were the worst in the league in turnovers (24.9), three-point percentage (24.7), and freethrow percentage (58.4).
“We’re going to maximize their potentials. I’m just going to allow them to play, make sure they enjoy the game and of course we’re going to instill the work ethic that we want because this season, we’re going to be the hardest working team, talagang magta-trabaho kami,” Ayo said.
A philosophy graduate of Dominican sister school Colegio de San Juan de Letran, Ayo said he opted to join UST partly because of his closeness with some Dominican priests
Ayo also cited “personal growth” as a main reason for his transfer.
“I believe that I can coach here the way things should be,” he said. “Second, most of the priests are my personal friends and my contemporaries in the seminary. Most of the seminarians in Sorsogon studied here [UST].”
Ayo’s official induction brought a new era in Tigers basketball after being the first non-Thomasian head coach of the team, a feat that was met with mixed receptions from the UST community.
“Whatever they say or kung ano man, everyone’s entitled with their own opinion,” Ayo said. “There were things that were out of control pero as much as possible, gusto ko kontrolado. Pero ganun ‘yung basketball eh, you cannot control everything.”
Coaching staff
Ayo tapped four familiar faces, two of them from his La Salle champion team, to assist him on the bench.
He introduced Bonnie Garcia, McJour Luib, Kristoffer Co, and Rene Baena during the press briefing last Jan. 11.
Garcia is a former head coach of the Sta. Lucia Realtors in the Pilipinas Commercial Basketball League (PCBL) last 2016, while Luib and Co were part of Ayo’s previous coaching staff in De La Salle University. Baena was an assistant coach of the Adamson Baby Falcons last Season 79.
The 24-year-old Luib played for Ayo at Colegio de San Juan de Letran in 2015 before he was joined his coach in La Salle.
Ayo said he was still completing his coaching staff since some of the eyed members still had prior commitments.
“Once makumpleto yung coaching staff saka namin titingnan kung ano yung roles [nila],” Ayo told the Varsitarian.
Co, who was with Ayo since Season 79, said he would most likely be assigned to scout the other teams and edit game film for the team’s use.
In a separate interview with the Varsitarian, Ayo also named Randy Alcantara, Napoleon Garcia and Ruden De Vera as the missing pieces to his staff.
Alcantara, who led the Mapua Junior Red Robins to the 2016 NCAA championship, will join Bonnie Garcia as deputy assistants.
Former Colegio de San Juan de Letran assistant coach Nap Garcia will take over scouting and recruitment of players along with Luib and Baena.
“For the recruitment, syempre ‘yung [hinahanap] natin na player ay may coachability, someone who would fit in coach Ayo’s system, masipag sa depensa at nag-aaral nang mabuti kasi mahalaga sa atin ‘yun,” Nap Garcia said.
De Vera, who was Ayo’s assistant coach for the Aemilianum College Knights of Sorsogon City in 2009, will manage the academic requirements, class schedule and dormitory of the Tigers.
“Sa policy ni coach, una talaga ang academics. ‘Yung mga players, everyday ko chine-check kung pumapasok, mayroon akong schedule nila. Kapag hindi pumasok at nag-training, sinisita namin. Strikto kami,” the 40-year-old de Vera said.
