By NIKOLE JAVIER
Learning the lessons of a painful Final Four exit against eventual champion University of the Philippines last season, De La Salle head coach Derrick Pumaren finally sees the glimpse of a great potential from the Green Archers.
Pumaren's remarks came after ending a long drought against Ateneo Blue Eagles last Sunday, Oct. 9, hacking out a 83-78 win over their rivals which put the an end to losing skid that stretches back to 2017.
“Last season, we didn’t really know each other. First time I’d seen Schon (Winston), first time they’ve seen me. Some of these guys also I’ve seen only when the bubble started. It was more of getting to know each other and we didn’t have enough time to really know each other,” Pumaren said.
“This season, we were able to, even though there was a short break, take advantage of that. We were able to join and became busy joining the preseason. At least we can see what we’ve done so far.”
Despite the sweet victory over the Blue Eagles, Pumaren doesn’t think there’s much to celebrate as the season is not winding down anytime soon and a couple of defensive lapses need to be remedied.
Winston, who scored 25 points, even deemed Ateneo head coach Tab Baldwin as “the winning coach” in their first quarter crisis where he went blank from the field.
“In the first quarter, coach Tab is the winning coach provided a lot of different schemes to kind of stop what we do best. And I just had to sit down and look at the game and see how they’re playing us. And take a step back and see how it can be effective. And later on the stretch, I was tryna do whatever it took to win for our team,” said Winston.
With quality minutes given to Raven Cortez and Penny Estacio, Pumaren expects now more for the Green Archers as they take on University of the East on Wednesday, Oct. 12, which broke loose from its 15-game losing streak last Oct. 5.
“We just have to really focus and stay on track and take care of business against UE and we don’t underestimate them. We know that they’re better team now compared to the last season. We had a hard time, we had a tough time with UE. In fact, the last game, I think we had overtime. So, we just know we had to be ready for UE,” the tactician said.