“We’ll be a little smaller but we’ll be faster and a little more determined,” -Blazers coach Gabby Velasco
June 22, 2015
College of St. Benilde will rely on speed, cohesion and outside shooting despite its lack of size when it launches its campaign in the 91st NCAA basketball tournament unfurling on Saturday at the MOA Arena in Pasay City.
“We’ll be a little smaller this year but we’ll be faster and a little more determined,” said Blazers coach Gabby Velasco.
Relying on “small-ball” type of game anchored on the troika of Mark Romero, Juan Paolo Taha and Jonathan Grey, the Blazers defied odds and came one win away from making the Final Four and ended up fifth with an 11-7 (win-loss) record.
Unfortunately, Romero and Taha have already turned pros, leaving Grey the leadership mantle.
“It’s tough when you lose two of our top three players from last season,” said Velasco of Romero and Taha. “But as always, we have made do with what we have and maximize in areas we feel we’re strong at.”
And that will be speed and outside shooting.
Returning from last year’s roster are reigning NCAA three-point shooting champion Travis Jerome Jonson and a slew of undersized but tenacious big men in Pons Saavedra, Jeffrey Ryan Ongteco and Ralp Deles.
Velasco also has strong hopes that one of the new guys–Gerard Castor, Edward Dixon, John Domingo, Christian Fajarito, Amando San Juan, Rene Sta. Maria and Carlo Michael Young–would emerge in helping fill the huge voids left by Romero and Taha.
“This is college basketball, we have to be always ready to rebuild because players can only play as much as five years,” said Velasco.
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