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After a rough start to the season, new coach Sean Chambers and the FEU Tamaraws pile up key victories in the second round to keep their UAAP Final Four hopes alive
MANILA, Philippines – Despite struggling out of the gate in UAAP Season 87, the FEU Tamaraws surprisingly propped themselves up in the second round to stay in the Final Four hunt in the men’s basketball tournament.
The Tamaraws had only one win to show in the first round, but impressively turned their game around to rise to 5-8 and vault past the Ateneo Blue Eagles (3-9) and NU Bulldogs (4-9), the first two teams eliminated this season.
“They’re good kids, they’re disciplined, and they wanna win,” said head coach Sean Chambers of his young Tamaraws.
Chambers, who worked as a middle school principal in Sacramento, California, after retiring from basketball — a career that included a successful PBA run as Alaska’s import — shared his value for discipline, a strong anchor in keeping the team in check.
“I’ve been pretty tough on them in practice, and I sent them a message today (Saturday) on our chat line that says ‘I’m hard on discipline because I love you. If I don’t love you, I won’t discipline you, but I want the best for you,’” said Chambers.
“And these guys have responded amazingly. Their response has been amazing.”
With only two semifinal spots left, the Tamaraws continued to fight along with the UE Red Warriors (6-6), UST Growling Tigers (6-7), and Adamson Falcons (5-7).
Defending champion La Salle Green Archers (12-1) and the UP Fighting Maroons (9-3) already put a lock on the top two spots.
The Tamaraws, despite fielding nine rookies this year, matured together and strung up a 4-2 slate in the second round, with UP being their last assignment.
Last Saturday, FEU completed a season sweep of Ateneo, 65-54, where freshman Janrey Pasaol tallied career highs of 14 points and 6 assists to go with 7 rebounds, and towering Gambian rookie Mo Konateh filled the stat sheets again with 11 points and 21 rebounds.
The victory came just three days after FEU nearly pulled off an upset over La Salle, 58-53.
“Sometimes, we kind of got out of the things we do, but I think at the end, they kept fighting. And our goal was to finally see, ‘can we beat a team twice in the tournament?’” said Chambers.
“So that was the big thing for [us that day], and it continued to grow from our last win, so now we’re at five (wins},” he added.
“And we know we came ready during that [game] against La Salle… we kind of gave it away, but we learn from it.” – Rappler.com
