UAAP: Behind solid core, host FEU looks to cause problems

Janrey Pasaol (left) and Jorick Bautista will lead the Tamaraws’ charge. —MARLO CUETO

UAAP SCHEDULE: Season 89 basketball tournament

There’s a certain kind of pressure that comes with being the host school of the UAAP. And having the reigning MVP in your roster adds a little more heat.

That doesn’t seem to bother Far Eastern University’s senior guard Jorick Bautista, who is graduating this school year.

In fact, he feels it might bother other schools.

“FEU’s going to be a problem. That’s all I can say,” Bautista told the Inquirer. “It’s exciting. We’re a bit nervous but that’s a part of it. I think we’ll enjoy this coming UAAP.”

“We don’t think about us hosting. Our focus now is the team. That’s it.”

That team will be led by Janrey Pasaol, Bautista’s backcourt running mate who won the MVP last season. Pasaol will have that extra burden on his shoulders as expectations on him rise, but coach Sean Chambers believes that the spitfire guard has the maturity to handle all of that.

“For Jan, I’m reminding him—and he’s taking it very well—that the expectations that we can put on ourselves should always be more than what anybody tries to put on us,” Chambers told the Inquirer.

“Whatever anybody else thinks outside our circle can never match what we’re going to put on ourselves.”

FEU is expected to be among the teams in contention for a spot in the Final Four—at the very least—in Season 89 of the men’s basketball tournament. After all, the Tamaraws barely made the semifinals last year after finishing with a 7-7 record, just one win behind fourth-seed and eventual champion La Salle (8-6).

And the team only got better this year. Pasaol certainly will be better.

The 23-year-old guard posted averages of 15.43 points, 7.5 assists, 4.14 rebounds and 2.14 steals per game to zoom past UST’s Nic Cabañero, Green Archer Mike Phillips and National U’s Jake Figueroa for the MVP plum.

And he can start thinking about something bigger.

“We’re talking about legacy when we talk about Jan,” Chambers, the Gilas Pilipinas assistant coach, said. “One of the things my high school coaches taught me was, ‘What kind of legacy will you leave behind?’ I live with that motto.”

“The expectations we’re putting on Jan, or Jan puts on himself, can never [be at the level of] what people [have]. They should always be higher.”

FEU’s cohesion will be key to its campaign, with school athletic director and league president Mark Molina, a former Tamaraws coach, saying that out of the team’s 15 local players, 11 are from its own high school program.

“We can expect this team to fight as one,” Molina said.

Pasaol, Bautista and foreign student-athlete Mo Konateh will be at the forefront of FEU’s bid, which kicks off against Adamson at noon on Sunday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Among the rookies from FEU’s high school program who will reinforce the team are UAAP junior stars Cabs Cabonillas and Marc Burgos.

Chambers will also enter the season with a little coaching improvement, after gathering added know-how from his stint with the national team.

As an assistant to national coach Tim Cone, Chambers helped the Philippines defeat Jordan and Iran in the recent window of the Fiba World Cup Asian qualifiers.

“It’s like a cheat code when we got a chance to examine and study teams like Jordan, Iran, New Zealand and Australia,” said Chambers. “I got to see it live, up close and personal, so there are things I’ll be bringing to the table.

“But at the end of the day, we’ll stick to what we do as Tamaraws.”

Defending champion La Salle will take on last season’s top seed National U at 2:30 to be followed by a blockbuster affair between the University of Santo Tomas and State U at 6 p.m. INQ