Sen. Joel Villanueva on Saturday said his former Growling Tigers teammate Bal David Jr. was the perfect coach to help the UST men’s basketball team return to its winning ways.
Villanueva shared the backcourt with David in his rookie year for the Tigers in the 57th season of the UAAP in 1994.
That year, David played hero for the Tigers with his performance in Game 3 of the 1994 finals between UST and De La Salle University, in which he scored a game-high 17 points and sank the game-winning free throws with six seconds left to win UST’s second-straight basketball championship after a 29-year title drought.
“I distinctly remember that during the dying seconds of the Game 3 finals at the Cuneta Astrodome, La Salle was leading with one point, but Bal David’s two clutch free throws sealed the Growling Tigers’ back-to-back UAAP men’s basketball championships,” Villanueva told the Varsitarian.
“It was a defining moment for Bal David as a basketball player. Years of hard work, discipline, and consistently striving to perfect his craft shaped his professional career in the PBA,” the senator added.
David was drafted in 1995 by the Sunkist Orange Juicers, but he would play his entire 10-year PBA career with the Barangay Ginebra Kings. He was named an all-star in the pro league four times and became champion twice.
David was named head coach of the Growling Tigers on Friday.
“I can’t wait to see him coach and use his decades of experience in the PBA to rebuild our team,” Villanueva said. “I guess I speak for all Thomasians. We are all excited to see ‘The Flash,’ the legend, the former point guard of Barangay Ginebra lead the Growling Tigers to the top.”
David reenters UST hoping to instill a winning culture to the Tigers team that finished with a 3-11 win-loss slate in UAAP Season 84.
Villanueva said his former teammate was the most qualified to help UST take the next step in its rebuild.
“Amidst the enormous hurdles that challenge the UST Tigers right now, Bal David is most fit and suitable for coaching the team. And what better way to make a comeback and make UST Tigers the force to reckon with once more than with Bal David at its helm,” he said.
David will make his UST coaching debut on July 25, when the Tigers will open their 2022 Fil-Oil Premier Cup against the Jose Rizal University Bombers.
