For National University men’s basketball head coach Eric Altamirano, it is 1986 all over again.
The former Fighting Maroon and now champion coach of the Bulldogs steered his team to its first championship in sixty years, and the fruits of his four year tenure with UAAP’s smallest member school in terms of student population has been reaped.
But, according to him, this is a product of a step-by-step approach.
“In my first year, our battlecry was to gain respect. Then the next years, our mentality is that we can win,” the journeyman coach said, explaining that success cannot be gained within one single season.
IN PHOTOS: National University Bulldogs’ historic championship game
Explained Altamirano, “there’ something special in this team that I can’t pinpoint… we lost our core from last year and we’ve never imagined that we’re going to be champions this year.”
Altamirano credited his players for playing “team defense,” which for him was the key to their championship.
“Teamwork is an oft-repeated word. But this team, they displayed teamwork in defense. It’s something that cannot be easily noticed. You can’t make that kind of defense if you’re not one in mind and one in heart,” he explained.
“The style of basketball we showed is centered on the team. It’s not on individuals,” he continued.
“They love playing with each other and they have this collective spirit in them.”
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PHOTOS: National University Bulldogs’ historic championship game
