Remogat brushes off ‘revenge game’ talks

Rey Remogat finally put an end to his slump, leading University of the Philippines (UP) to a 92-75 victory over his former team — University of the East (UE) — in Season 88 University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men’s basketball tournament on Sunday.

But for the 5-foot-10 playmaker, it’s not about revenge.

“I didn’t use UE as a basis to have a good performance,” said Remogat after dropping 18 of his 21 points in the first half that allowed the Fighting Maroons to gain momentum and dictate the tempo the rest of the way.

“I believe that as defending champions, we need to start everything at practice. We iron out everything during practices so that we’ll have good results.”

After emerging as part of the Mythical Team in Season 86 for the Red Warriors, Remogat pulled off a shocker when he decided to transfer to UP.

He sat out Season 87 before finally suiting up this year, raising speculations that he is good and experienced enough to supply the numbers that the Fighting Maroons lost when JD Cagulangan moved to Korea.

But it didn’t happen overnight.

In his first game, Remogat had only five points and one assist in their 67-87 loss to University of Santo Tomas. He followed it up with yet another underwhelming performance as he failed to score with just three assists in their 59-62 loss to Adamson University.

Remogat admitted that starting his UP career on a sour note was really tough. But instead of dwelling on negative thoughts, he just stayed calm and focused on the things that made him successful in the past.

“It starts with mental preparation,” said Remogat, who added 11 rebounds and seven assists to go with his 21 points in more than 30 minutes on the floor against the Red Warriors.

“As you know, even if I don’t read things on social media, the fact that you had a bad game gives you a feeling that people will have something to say because you failed their expectations.”

“I just kept in mind that I don’t have to please anyone. I need to do something to help my team. And every time I’ll have a bad game, I will go out and work even harder. I do extra training before and after the game, especially if I played badly.”