Chito Victolero will be making a homecoming as he was tapped to coach Mapua University in Season 102 National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament on Wednesday.

Fresh from a memorable stint for Magnolia in the Philippine Basketball Association, the 50-year-old Victolero will be replacing Randy Alcantara as bench boss after the Cardinals failed to advance to the Final Four with a 7-6 win-loss record a year after winning a historic title.

Shortly after his appointment had been formalized, Victolero wasted no time in buckling down to work as he presided over a meeting with the players, fellow coaches and other members of the squad.

“I’m just in a meeting with the players,” Victolero said when DAILY TRIBUNE tried to seek his comment.

It’s going to be a homecoming for Victolero.

He previously called the shots for the Cardinals from 2009 to 2012, carving out a respectable run highlighted by a Final Four appearance in Season 86 in 2010, where they finished with a 9-7 win-loss record to secure fourth place and advance to the stepladder semifinals before bowing to Jose Rizal University.

More than a decade later, Victolero returns to a program hungry for redemption

The Cardinals were dethroned in Season 101 after absorbing a quarterfinals loss to De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, cutting short what had been a promising title defense.

Mapua will also enter Season 102 without key veterans Cyrus Cuenco and Clint Escamis, who both served as crucial pieces in the school’s championship run.

Victolero’s second tour of duty is expected to look different from his first.

Aside from being older and wiser, he also brings an 11-year coaching experience from the professional ranks, where he battled some of the brightest minds in basketball like Tim Cone of Barangay Ginebra and Chot Reyes of TNT Tropang 5G.

He served as an assistant coach of Terrafirma Dyip from 2014 to 2016 before taking the helm of Magnolia, which he led to the 2018 PBA Governors’ Cup crown.