Hours before TNT’s match against Barangay Ginebra San Miguel in Game 2 of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) finals, Rey Nambatac got the news that Letran College lost 58-68 to Emilio Aguinaldo College in Season 100 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men’s basketball tournament.
Nambatac, a Tropang Giga guard, admitted he wanted to help out his alma mater after seeing the Knights struggle in the second round after only one win in six games.
The Cagayan de Oro native won an NCAA title with Letran and is currently an assistant coach under Allen Ricardo.
“I couldn’t do anything but cheer them up on social media. But I know they have the Arriba spirit of Letran, I know how they will bounce back,” Nambatac said.
“I have full trust that the players of Letran will get better. We still have a chance to make it to the Final Four so we just need to take it one game at a time.”
Despite the ongoing PBA title series with the Tropang Giga, Nambatac said he still keeps in touch with the squad.
“I’m in the team group chat so I’m always in touch. I wasn’t able to attend the practices and games due to my busy schedule,” Nambatac said.
The Knights currently have a 7-8 win-loss record and will have to win their remaining games to vie for at least a playoff for a Final Four spot.
Ricardo said they will use the long break to assess what went wrong with them and make the necessary adjustments, especially with Final Four-bound College of Saint Benilde awaiting them on 8 November at the Filoil EcoOil Centre.
“We need to pause for a moment and try to redeem ourselves. We had a lot of mistakes and basketball is a game that requires the least amount of mistakes to win,” Ricardo said.
“They should realize they need to step up when guys like Deo (Cuajao) and (Jimboy) Estrada get shut down.”