2009 UST Growling Tigers basketball team explained

The 2009 UST Growling Tigers men's basketball team represented University of Santo Tomas in the 72nd season of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines. The men's basketball tournament for the school year 2009-10 began on July 11, 2009 and the host school for the season was Far Eastern University.^[1]

UST finished fourth at the end of the double round-robin eliminations. They won six games against eight losses. The Growling Tigers were on back-to-back losses going into their final match of the eliminations. The De La Salle Green Archers who were a game behind them on a 5–8 win–loss record could end up in a tie and eliminate the Tigers due to a superior +13 quotient.

They went on to lose against the UE Red Warriors, but the NU Bulldogs had indirectly helped them qualify for the playoffs by beating La Salle who eventually finished the eliminations with a 5–9 record.^[2]

The Tigers made it back to the Final Four after missing out on the playoffs in Season 71 but lost to the No. 1-ranked Ateneo Blue Eagles, who had a twice-to-beat advantage over them.^[3]

They had an average winning margin of 9.3 points and an average losing margin of 12.9 points.

They experienced a 27-point blowout loss to the FEU Tamaraws and had a double-overtime loss to La Salle, both in the first round.^{[4] [5]}

Team captain Dylan Ababou was named Most Valuable Player and scoring leader of the season, while Jeric Teng won the Rookie of the Year award. Ababaou was also chosen Player of the Week by the UAAP Press Corps for the duration of July 23–26 when he topscored for the Tigers with 28 points in their 92–88 win over UE.^{[6] [7]}

Roster

Depth chart

Roster changes

All but two of the players from the Season 69 champion team have graduated. Season 70 MVP Jervy Cruz, point guard Japs Cuan, former team captain Francis Allera, Mel Gile, and centers Badong Canlas and Chester Taylor have all used up their playing years and the only members remaining from the team are Dylan Ababou, who is set to lead the team as this year's captain and returning forward AC Marquez.

Ababou will be joined by veterans Khasim Mirza, Chris Camus, and Allein Maliksi who has recovered from an ACL injury the previous year. The team will have eight new players composed of rookies and members of the Team B training pool.^[8]

Subtractions

	7			6' 5"	4th		Graduated
	8		Emilian Vargas	5' 11"	3rd		Transferred to Emilio Aguinaldo College
	9		Melchor Gile	6' 4"	4th		Graduated
	16			6' 3"	5th		Graduated
	17		Chester Lloyd Taylor	6' 4"	5th		Graduated
	18		John Paul Cuan	5' 7"	5th		Graduated
	19		Carlos Amador Fenequito	6' 0"	4th		Relegated to Team B
	20			6' 4"	5th		Graduated
	21		Jackson Wong	5' 10"	2nd		On leave

Additions

	5		Darell John Green	6' 3"	1st		Rookie
	10			6' 3"	1st		Rookie
	11		Andre Charles Marquez	6' 3"	2nd		Returning from Season 69
	13		Hadi Rushdy	6' 2"	1st	Colegio San Agustin – Makati	Rookie
	16			6' 2"	1st		Rookie
	17		Aljohn Gil Ungria	6' 1"	1st		Promoted from Team B
	19		Eduardo Aytona, Jr.	5' 10"	1st	University of Santo Tomas	Rookie
	20		Andrew Joseph Felix	5' 11"	1st		Promoted from Team B
	21		Marco Martin Cam	6' 0"	1st		Rookie

Coaching staff

Beaujing Acot, the Growling Tigers' assistant coach for defense has resigned from his post. He had informed head coach Pido Jarencio of his decision through a text message a month before the UAAP tournament began. He had coached the Tigers during their preseason games in the summer but had stopped showing up to practices after.

Assistant coach Rabbi Tomacruz has also left the coaching staff to concentrate on his studies. The former UST Glowing Goldie who was in charge of liaisons and training of the Tigers' Team B has decided to pursue a career in nursing.

Acot's tasks will be divided between Jarencio and Senen Dueñas, the team's assistant coach for offense. Gina Francisco, former team captain of the UST senior women's basketball team will assume Tomacruz's duties in the team.^[9]

Schedule and results

Preseason tournaments

The Nike Summer League games were aired on Studio 23.

UAAP games

Elimination games were played in a double round-robin format and all of UST's games were aired on Studio 23 and Balls.

Postseason tournament

UAAP statistics

Eliminations

	14		style=	32.9	98	240	40.8	15	56	26.8	57	81	70.4	7.1	2.2	0.9	0.4	2.4	style=	18.9
	14		30.3	70	182	38.5	14	62	22.6	35	55	63.6	style=	8.8	1.8	0.6	0.8	2.9	13.5
	14		23.4	49	119	41.2	14	55	25.5	48	61	78.7	4.4	1.6	0.9	0.2	2.1	11.4
	13		31.4	35	89	39.3	21	41	style=	51.2	14	16	87.5	3.1	style=	4.0	1.5	0.2	2.8	8.1
	11		14.3	29	81	35.8	10	28	35.7	20	25	80.0	4.3	0.5	0.4	0.2	2.0	8.0
Tata Bautista	14		16.4	32	97	33.0	31	78	39.7	14	16	87.5	1.9	1.9	0.6	0.0	1.2	7.2
Chris Camus	14		23.6	36	74	48.6	0	3	0.0	27	39	69.2	6.7	0.9	style=	1.6	style=	1.5	0.9	7.1
Melo Afuang	14		14.4	19	52	36.5	1	5	20.0	8	13	61.5	2.6	0.3	0.4	0.1	1.2	3.4
Darell Green	12		7.4	8	26	30.8	0	0	0.0	4	6	66.7	1.8	0.1	0.2	0.0	0.8	1.7
	10		4.3	3	11	27.3	0	2	0.0	4	6	66.7	0.8	0.1	0.0	0.1	0.8	1.0
Eddie Aytona	12		5.2	4	15	26.7	2	9	22.2	0	0	0.0	0.3	0.5	0.0	0.1	0.7	0.8
Marco Cam	6		1.7	1	3	33.3	0	0	0.0	2	2	style=	100.0	0.8	0.0	0.2	0.0	0.0	0.7
Andrew Felix	6		2.5	1	2	style=	50.0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0.0	0.7	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.8	0.3
Aljohn Ungria	9		3.1	0	4	0.0	0	1	0.0	1	2	50.0	0.4	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.2	0.1
AC Marquez	4		2.8	0	2	0.0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0.0	0.8	0.0	0.3	0.3	0.8	0.0
Hadi Rushdy	3		1.0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Total	14		40.7	385	997	38.6	103	343	30.0	231	322	71.7	44.4	14.9	7.1	3.7	18.5	78.6
Opponents	14		40.7	406	993	40.9	110	375	29.3	240	399	60.2	41.2	16.5	6.1	5.1	16.8	82.1

Playoffs

	1		style=	38	6	18	33.3	3	11	27.3	4	6	66.7	8	1	0	0	5	style=	19
	1		31	3	12	25.0	2	8	25.0	6	8	75.0	style=	11	2	1	style=	1	3	14
	1		22	3	11	27.3	2	6	style=	33.3	2	2	style=	100.0	4	0	0	style=	1	2	10
Tata Bautista	1		22	2	7	28.6	2	6	style=	33.3	5	8	62.5	3	0	0	0	2	9
	1		35	3	11	27.3	0	5	0.0	1	2	50.0	6	style=	4	style=	2	0	4	7
Melo Afuang	1		17	2	4	style=	50.0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0.0	4	0	1	0	0	4
Chris Camus	1		19	0	2	0.0	0	2	0.0	1	2	50.0	4	0	0	style=	1	0	1
	1		15	0	0	0.0	0	2	0.0	0	0	0.0	5	0	0	0	5	0
Eddie Aytona	1		1	0	0	0.0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	1		40.0	19	69	27.5	9	40	22.5	19	28	67.9	43	8	4	3	21	64
Opponents	1		40.0	30	59	50.8	6	16	37.5	14	21	66.7	40	21	14	3	19	81

Source: inboundPASS

Awards

Team	Millennium Basketball League runners-up	align=right rowspan=2	23 Jun 2009	align=center rowspan=2	[10]
Allein Maliksi	Millennium Basketball League MVP
Dylan Ababou	Season MVP	align=right rowspan=3	1 Oct 2009	align=center rowspan=3	[11]
	Mythical team
	Scoring champion
	Player of the Week	23–26 Jul 2009
Jeric Teng	Rookie of the year	align=right rowspan=2	1 Oct 2009	align=center rowspan=2
Jeric Fortuna	Best 3-point field goal percentage

Players drafted into the PBA

Khasim Mirza was picked in the second round and was selected 16th overall in the 2010 PBA draft by the Ryan Gregorio-led Meralco Bolts on August 29, 2010. Allein Maliksi and Dylan Ababou, meanwhile, applied for the 2011 PBA draft and were selected eighth and tenth overall respectively, both in the first round on August 28, 2011.^{[12] [13]}

	2	6	16		Meralco Bolts
	1	8	8		Petron Blaze Boosters
	1	10	10		Barako Bull Energy

Notes and References

1. Web site: Jittery UST edges Adamson in UAAP season opener . GMA News Online . Legaspi, Perry . 11 Jul 2009.
2. Web site: Tigers gatecrash Final Four . The Varsitarian . Abulencia, Charizze . Babiera, Lester . 16 Sep 2009.
3. Web site: Ateneo on course for back-to-back UAAP titles . GMA News Online . 20 Sep 2009.
4. Web site: Ababou plays but UST still loses . ABS-CBN Sports . Almo, Alder . 6 Aug 2009.
5. Web site: La Salle seize double OT victory . Philippine Daily Inquirer . Payo, Jasmine . 2 Aug 2009.
6. Web site: UST's Teng named Rookie of the Year . ABS-CBN Sports . Almo, Alder . 19 Sep 2009.
7. Web site: Ababou, UAAP Player of the Week . The Philippine Star . Francisco, Sarie Nerine . 28 Jul 2009.
8. Web site: New-look Tigers vow tough UAAP fight . The Varsitarian . 30 Jun 2009.
9. Web site: Tigers remain undeterred amid losing two coaches . The Varsitarian . 15 Jul 2009.
10. Web site: Tigers fall short on pre-UAAP title . The Varsitarian . 30 Jun 2009.
11. Web site: Ateneo, UE aces lead special awardees . GMA News Online . 1 Oct 2009.
12. Web site: Baclao taken No. 1 over Al-Hussaini . Philippine Daily Inquirer . 29 Aug 2010.
13. Web site: Casio first overall; Lee, Maliksi, Cervantes also picked . Philippine Daily Inquirer . Giongco, Mark . 28 Aug 2011.