UV president Gullas reminds Green Lancers to ‘keep feet on the ground’ after historic Cesafi win

Clad in white shirts with printed words “HEART, DEFENSE, PRAYER,” the University of the Visayas (UV) Green Lancers were obviously still on cloud nine during a press briefing yesterday.

It’s been a week since their historic championship run in the 2013 Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (Cesafi) men’s basketball tournament. But the Green Lancers can’t be faulted if the celebration hasn’t died down yet. After all, it was a feat that perhaps would never be matched.

Still, UV President Eduardo Gullas was quick to remind the Lancers to keep their emotions in check and to avoid the accomplishment from getting into their head.

“As humans, it is natural to celebrate and be proud when we achieve something. But you have to stay humble and keep your feet on solid ground,” Gullas told the Green Lancers in his office at the UV campus. “And I also have to remind you to do well in your studies because you will not be playing basketball forever.”

Gullas commended the Lancers for the recent success, overcoming a 0-2 hole in the best-of-five series to slay the mighty Southwestern University (SWU) Cobras.

The Lancers capped the magnificent run with a 64-62 win in Game 5 behind the game-winning putback of Wowie Escosio in the final 0.7 seconds.

“UV has won several championships but I have never been prouder than this championship that the team had just won. They rose from the grave. They showed the UV spirit, which is to fight best when the odds are greatest,” said Gullas, who also played for the Lancers in his younger years.

Team manager Sam-Sam Gullas admitted that he started to doubt the Lancers when they lost the first two games of the series.

“I’ll be a hypocrite if I say that the thought of giving up didn’t cross my mind,” said the younger Gullas, the current Cebu First District Representative. “But the moment we won Game 3, we knew we could still win the series.”

“When we won Game 3, it was like a thorn was removed. I saw the players’ confidence rise and that was the turning point,” said UV head coach Felix “Donbel” Belano. “I just told them to continue fighting even when we were down in the series. I shared them biblical stories to inspire them not to give up.”

Key adjustments on both ends of the floor turned the tide in UV’s favor.

“We noticed that their key players like (Mark Jayven) Tallo, (Adams) Mohammed and (Monbert) Arong were logging heavy minutes. So, we instructed our guards to fasten up the game, attack the fastbreaks and employ full-court defense. Those moves paid off since Tallo looked tired in the endgame and Arong was misfiring from the outside,” Sam-Sam said.

Apart from leading the Green Lancers to their 10th title, Belano also learned a lot from the series, especially after going up against a veteran coach like Yayoy Alcoseba.

“I have so much respect for coach Yayoy. I learned from watching him run the plays for SWU. It feels great to help the Lancers become the first team in league history to overcome a 0-2 series deficit in a best-of-five series and it even feels better to win it opposite a coach like Yayoy,” Belano said.

After ruling this year’s Cesafi, UV is now gearing up for what is expected to be another tough campaign in the Philippine Collegiate Champions’ League tentatively set next month.

The Lancers will have an almost intact lineup for next year’s Cesafi.

“Winning a title is tough and it is even harder to defend a crown. We will have the same core for next year and we will have the same attitude which is to play hard in every game,” Sam-Sam said.