UST basketball coach lashes at other schools for allegedly wooing prized player Rhenz Abando

University of Santo Tomas (UST) basketball coach Aldin Ayo yesterday lashed at rival universities for allegedly trying to poach his prized recruit, 21-year-old rookie Rhenz Abando.

In an interview with UST’s student publication, The Varsitarian, Ayo said poaching Abando was “unethical” — although the player has decided to stay with the team, nicknamed the Growling Tigers.

“In the middle of the season, offering to contract a player. You’re insulting that boy and other players,” Ayo said.

He said poaching has become a strategy for other teams in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) to stop UST from winning. At present, the team is sitting in third place in the rankings, with six wins and five losses.

Read: UP president hits back at regent who joked of attacking Ateneo’s basketball players

“There are UAAP teams which probably have this strategy where they’re going against us on- and off-court. They do [these] things to distract our team,” he said.

Coach Ayo’s attack on his unnamed rivals comes after The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported yesterday that Abando wanted to abandon UST (see what we did there?) for another school, and that the player had already informed his current team about his decision. This allegedly compelled Coach Ayo to bench the rookie player during UST’s game against the University of the Philippines at the Mall of Asia Arena on Wednesday, which UST won.

However, in another report that also appeared yesterday, The Inquirer said that Abando had changed his mind after meeting with Coach Ayo and UST Institute of Physical Education Director Father Jannel Abogado.

The UAAP is a collegiate league composed of eight Metro Manila universities and established in 1938. While the schools compete in 15 sports, basketball is by far the most-followed due to its intense popularity in the Philippines. UAAP basketball has become so popular, in fact, that even Filipinos from schools that do not compete in the league often find themselves rooting for universities that do.

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