Ricardo wants ‘braver’ Knights

Letran College coach Allen Ricardo wants his wards to be “braver” in their campaign in Season 100 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men’s basketball tournament.

Ricardo, who led the Squires to back-to-back titles in the juniors’ division, said he wants the Knights to go hard in the crucial stretch to secure victories that will lead them back to the Final Four of the country’s oldest collegiate league.

In their first game against San Sebastian College over the weekend, Ricardo hardly saw the Knights’ killer instinct, prompting them to absorb an 84-91 setback.

“We lost our toughness on both offense and defense. Our killer instinct was also lost in the game and I told the boys we can’t waste our opportunities and go for the kill,” said Ricardo, whose squad was torched by Rafael Are’s 30-point explosion.

“We all hope we can bounce back in the next game. We need to be braver in the games so that we don’t be in this situation anymore.”

Against the Stags, the Knights actually dictating the tempo.

But they suddenly lost their momentum, allowing the Stags to take an 82-81 lead in the final 2:35 of the game. The Knights were not able to recover, sending them to their first setback of the brand-new season.

Letran, however, still has a chance to rectify its mistakes when it tackles Jose Rizal University on Friday at the Filoil EcoOil Centre in San Juan.

Still, Ricardo doesn’t want to see a repeat of their sluggish performance, in which they committed 24 turnovers, against the Heavy Bombers, who are coming off a 66-82 loss to University of Perpetual Help System Dalta.

The youthful mentor also hopes their new playing jersey, which was inspired by the school’s back-to-back championship runs in 1999, will fire them up for Season 100.

“We need to limit our turnovers and limit the opponent’s rebounding. The team is still adjusting to the rules and dynamics we set,” Ricardo said.

“The jersey design was inspired from the time when Kerby Raymundo played. We decided that’s the jersey design we gave to Anta Philippines because it might help us turn things around.”