The recent events surrounding CJ Cansino, which wrapped up in less than 24 hours, is just one of the earth-shaking news that rocked Philippine collegiate basketball.
During those passing hours, the virtual world, particularly Twitter, went in total frenzy as reports surfaced Thursday night that Cansino has bid farewell to the Tigers’ lair in Espana.
From speculations to confirmation, Cansino’s departure from University of Santo Tomas has left the collegiate community one question: Where to next?
In less than 24 hours, University of the Philippines provided irrevocable answer: The Maroons, through coach Bo Perasol, confirmed Friday afternoon that Cansino will suit up for the Diliman-based squad.
How about the other teams? Well, Cansino surely had second thoughts and listened to some of the “offers.”
On Twitter, Cansino exchanged several conversations with fellow collegiate stars as if the 20-year-old prized recruit was the jackpot prize in a lottery.
While these offers are informal, the former UAAP juniors’ MVP answered them diligently one by one.
For instance, La Salle stars Aljun Melecio and Andrei Caracut gave Cansino a quick campus tour by tweeting several photos of the university’s iconic buildings and training facility.
How about a reunion of Batang Gilas? SJ Belangel had this thought as well while Dave Ildefonso, who also transferred from National University to Ateneo, jested that they'll spend their residency year in Katipunan.
Shaun, Dave’s brother, for his part boasted these taglines: “We’ve got it all for you” and “arf arf,” referring to NU being owned by the Sy family of SM Group and its moniker being the Bulldogs.
On the NCAA side, Cansino got subtle offers from Letran stars Fran Yu and Jerrick Balanza.
PBA rising star Robert Bolick, who led the San Beda Red Lions to a three-peat, also joined the bandwagon.
“If you want to be a champion? You know where to go,” said Bolick in a now-deleted tweet.
Coach Charles Tiu has also taken interest in Cansino to join them in MPBL’s Nueva Ecija squad.
But we already knew who won this mock Twitter recruitment. For Cansino, there’s nowhere to go but “UP.”
Ricci Rivero and Juan Gomez De Liano reached out to Cansino, with the new recruit replying: “Basta babalik ka" and "Email me for collab."
In less than 24 hours, Cansino had made up his mind and took to Twitter to express his gratitude to the Thomasian community. He also honored fellow teammates Brent Paraiso and Ira Bataller in a separate tweet.
CJ’s mother, Rowena, also thanked UST for the support her son received during his stay from being a young cub to a growling tiger.
Now that the dust has settled, Cansino will be serving a residency year in the guard-loaded UP squad before officially playing in Season 84.
Then the former Tiger will shed his stripes and assume a new color.