NATIONAL University women’s basketball coach Patrick Aquino just added another crown to the long list of titles he has helped the team won in recent years as the Lady Warriors beat University of the East in the finals of the recent 6th edition of the Dickies Women’s tournament last Saturday.
But then his mind was already fast forwarding to the coming South East Asian Games in Malaysia, where the Philippines will try to win a championship it has never won in the past in women’s basketball.
Aquino is optimistic of his wards’ chances in this regional tournament.
For one, he believes the team, which has been together for the last two years for its core players, has prepared well for the SEAG. In fact, the team won the SEABA championship just a few months ago and last month, retained its Division 1 standing even as it only beat the North Koreans and bowed down to Asian giants like Japan, China, and Chinese Taipei, plus Australia.
“We learned a lot from those two tournaments and will serve us in good stead for the SEAG. The top seeds will still be Malaysia and Thailand plus the Philippines, but I am also wary of Indonesia, which really prepared for this year. Singapore, I will not take for granted. I am okay with the schedule, we cannot do anything about that. My concern is really more on the attitude side or mental aspect. Our players have a tendency to be satisfied once they have won two or three games, they should go beyond that once we are in Malaysia,” said Aquino.