Watching the replay of the Duke-Butler 2010 NCAA Men’s basketball championship match made me remember one historic moment in our country’s local collegiate basketball league.
Well, Butler was just a small school with a also a small basketball program compared to its Finals rival Duke, Michigan State, Kentucky or North Carolina.
But the Butler Bulldogs didn’t allow their underdog status to affect their mindset going into the 2010 NCAA season.
In the local basketball scene, I remember well it was 2001, three months before the start of the UAAP men’s basketball season. Pastor Bong (Navarro) and I were invited by National University head coach Manny Dandan to share a short message on teamwork to his basketball team.
For those who don’t know, the NU Bulldogs have been the UAAP’s perennial whipping boys in basketball for more than a quarter of a century.
Prior to the 2001 season, if my memory serves me right, the Bulldogs only won two games. And since the 1987-1988 season, the Bulldogs alternated at eighth place or seventh place. In the 2000 season, the Bulldogs “luckily” placed sixth.
Speaking before the lowly Bulldogs team (as media would always describe them), was quite a challenge.
For one, Pastor Bong and I had to think of a way to help them develop a winning mindset.
On our first day at NU’s antiquated basketball gymnasium in Sampaloc, Manila, the first time we shared the idea that it’s possible for the Bulldogs to the Final Four, nearly everyone laughed at us.
Can’t blame them since the school’s been used to losing since the 1960s, and the players the Bulldogs could get aren’t as talented as compared to other UAAP teams.
But as we prayed for the team and began introducing God and His winning plan to the players, we saw baby steps of change.
Some of the players started confessing they can make it to the Final Four.
Bryan Tolentino, the 6’1” undersized guard-forward and lockdown defender of NU, was one of the guys who responded to the Gospel.
Followed by the team’s team skipper Chico Manabat.
Little by little, the atmosphere at the dugout at the start of the 2001 season, began to change. From a team that just plays basketball (probably for fun and scholarship), NU was transformed into a team with a mission.
One by one, UAAP squads fell at the wayside—University of Santo Tomas, Far Eastern University, University of the Philippines, even Ateneo de Manila tasted defeat at NU’s hands.
But the most painful defeat that season was experienced by the University of the East, who lost in a thrilling sudden death triple overtime match that allowed the Bulldogs to barge into the Final Four for the very first time in the school’s UAAP history.
Entering the dugout after the Bulldogs’ emotional win versus the Red Warriors, I thought NU just won a championship.
In the Final Four, the Bulldogs stayed close for three quarters against the top-seed La Salle, but inexperience in the Playoffs eventually gave way, and NU went down in defeat.
Though the season didn’t end with a championship or at least a place in the Finals, in a way, Pastor Bong and I were able to witness how an insignificant team rose against the challenges and make history.