I’ve been a basketball-crazy fan of the PBA and the NBA since my childhood days.
Photo Source: http://www.sos.state.or.us/
But I never had any inkling what kind of history University of Santo Tomas (UST) will be writing in the Universities Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) when I entered my college freshman year in 1993.
I never showed interest in UAAP basketball during that time considering that the collegiate league back then had no giant network like Studio 23 (ABS-CBN Sports) to cover the games live.
But when the UAAP’s 1993 season kicked off, everyone in the university went crazy with the Growling Tigers.
I tried reading the sports headlines out of curiosity and I later found out why.
Santo Tomas, then led by a battle-tested cast of veterans like center Dennis Espino and power forward Rey Evangelista, guards Patrick Fran and Udoy Belmonte, had been making serious noise in the league with victories over equally strong squads like La Salle, University of the East and Far Eastern University.
The Growling Tigers had only one goal–win the UAAP crown and end the 26-year title drought with the help of head coach Aric del Rosario, who incidentally, was part of the Santo Tomas that won the school’s last basketball crown.
Tournament format rewards a team the championship at that time, given that it sweeps the two-round elimination which runs a total of 14 games.
Entering the final game of the two-round eliminations, Santo Tomas, already owning a perfect 13-0 record, needed just one more victory to accomplish the near-impossible task of scoring a 14-game sweep.
The Tigers faced the Adamson Falcons, which back then, had a platoon of big men led by seven-footer EJ Feihl, Marlou Aquino (6’9”), Erwin Luna (6’7”) and a reed-thin wingman by the name of Kenneth Duremdes.
Fighting tooth and nail, Santo Tomas did what was last achieved in the 1970s when it defeated the Falcons en route to the 14-game sweep.
Though sports league reward perfection with either championship trophies or a place in history, truth is, complete perfection can never be accomplished in life.
However, there was One who walked on earth, that did the impossible task of walking in perfection–Jesus Christ.
Though God didn’t promise perfection to us when we live for Him, He did promise that He can bring perfect peace into our lives when we completely trust in Him.
As Isaiah 26:3 says, You will keep in perfect peace, him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.