CABANERO KNOWS UST TURNAROUND STARTS WITH THEM BELIEVING AGAIN

REALITY check. Rude awakening. Call it whatever you want, University of Santo Tomas is taking it all in.

What was once a promising start has now turned into a downward spiral for the Growling Tigers as they lost their last three outings to stumble in the UAAP Season 88 men’s basketball tournament with a 5-4 record.

Making that slip up more painful was the manner they stumbled in their last outing, losing grip of an eight-point lead with 30 seconds left in regulation only to fall to Adamson, 97-96, in overtime last week.

READ: UST as champion or choker? Padrigao still trusts Tigers to prove worthy as winners

But Nic Cabanero will be the first to confront that elephant in the room. "Masakit. Nakakawalang gana yung nangyari last game," he told Spin.ph.

Rather than folding from these pressures, he’s choosing to face it head on.

"Life must go on," said the UST team captain, putting that defeat in the rear view.

Indeed, all hope isn’t lost on the Growling Tigers and the graduating winger would be the first to know that pain always comes first before pleasure.

Remember, this is the guy who has endured all of the heartbreaks in Espana –  near winless seasons and debilitating defeats included – for the better part of his five-year stay there.

And Cabanero will be the first to stress that every milestone within arm’s reach of the Growling Tigers can only be obtained through sacrifice and hard work, which is exactly how he plans to approach this pivotal stretch of the season.

"Pinag-uusapan namin that we already have the chances. All we need to do is to grab it," said the league’s top scorer.

Fortunately for UST, the Undas break was a welcome diversion for the team to recalibrate and hit the reset button as the black-and-gold braces for their last elimination assignments starting against University of the Philippines on Wednesday.

"Nagsalo-salo kami sa practice and had that heart-to-heart talk with the team. Nag-focus talaga kami sa recovery for mental and physical exhaustion na din," said Cabanero as the players also got a much-needed morale boost from the visiting alumni who came on their Monday practice.

"May mga true Thomasian alumni na nag-visit rin sa amin to share their love and support. With that gesture, it really touched us and made our team believe once again sa kaya naming ma-achieve."

That’s really it for Cabanero and the Growling Tigers: to bring back that trust and confidence that it’s capable of achieving the goals they set forth from the on-set of this campaign.

"It will all start talaga on us believing what we can do, taking it one game at a time," he said. 

"We’ll bring our faith to our belief and all we’re gonna do is to pray hard and play hard to win."

2025-11-03T12:15:06Z