Javi vows to step up

As a veteran of the team, I have to try my best to make my teammates keep their heads up.

JAVI Gomez de Liaño (right) vows to step up in the absence of UP head coach Bo Perasol.

Veteran Javi Gomez de Liaño declared readiness to step up as University of the Philippines (UP) marches into the second round of Season 82 University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men’s basketball tournament without head coach Bo Perasol.

Gomez de Liaño said the absence of Perasol is a major blow to the Fighting Maroons, who are trying to snap a 33-year title drought.

Perasol was slapped with a three-game suspension after charging into a referee at the 6:23 mark of the third period of their game against Ateneo de Manila University over the weekend.

Perasol cried foul over the non-call of Jerson Prado’s layup attempt, prompting him to attack referee Jamie Rivano before cooler heads prevailed.

With that, the UAAP Board slapped him with a three-game suspension that would bar him from calling the shots when the Fighting Maroons battle Far Eastern University on 6 October, University of the East on 12 October and University of Santo Tomas on 16 October.

But Gomez de Liaño vowed to step up and urged his teammates to rally behind their embattled mentor.

“As a veteran of the team, I have to try my best to make my teammates keep their heads up. Because at times, when we are trailing by big points, I tend to put my head down a little but,” said the fourth-year forward.

“But I realize that this shouldn’t be what I am doing. It should be the same energy whether we are losing or winning,”

Perasol said the three-game suspension might be too stiff of a penalty as they are now entering the crucial stretch of the race to the Final Four.

“I’ve already said my piece about regretting what I did. Three games suspension for an ejection is just too much,” stated Perasol in a text message after the suspension was imposed.

“More importantly, because the tournament is in its critical stage going into the second round. The suspension is practically half of it.”

Perasol was given 48 hours to make an appeal.

“To appeal to this decision is the most rational action to do,” Perasol said.