The 2010 UST Growling Tigers men's basketball team represented University of Santo Tomas in the 73rd season of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines. The men's basketball tournament for the school year 2010-11 began on July 10, 2010 and the host school for the season was De La Salle University.

UST finished seventh at the end of the double round-robin eliminations. They won four games against ten losses, giving head coach Pido Jarencio his worst win–loss record in the UAAP.

They had an average winning margin of 3.0 points and an average losing margin of 7.7 points.

Two of their games went into overtime. The first was an 87–81 win over the UP Fighting Maroons in the first round, and the other was a 76–81 double-overtime loss to the Adamson Falcons in the second round.

The Tigers tied Adamson's 2008 record of most three-point shots made in a game which they did twice, both in the first round. They made 16 three-point shots in their overtime win against UP and then repeated the feat against Adamson for a 55.2 field goal percentage.

Roster

Depth chart

Roster changes The Growling Tigers have lost Season 72 MVP and scoring leader Dylan Ababou as well as Khasim Mirza and Allein Maliksi to graduation, while Tiger Cubs and incoming college freshmen Kyle Neypes and Cedric Labing-isa, both of whom were shoo-ins to the UST Senior team decided to join the rival NU Bulldogs.

This year's roster includes Season 72 Rookie of the Year Jeric Teng, three-point specialists Jeric Fortuna and Tata Bautista, and big man Chris Camus among a handful of veterans. Nearly half of the roster are rookies with Ilocos Norte standout Ed Daquioag who was a former high school teammate of Bautista and Cebuano guard Pipoy Marata, who was named NBTC's Most Outstanding Player leading the pack.

Subtractions C 5 Darell John Green 6' 3" 2nd Colegio de San Juan de Letran Academic deficienciesSF 6 Dylan Simon Ababou 6' 3" 5th Siena College of Quezon City GraduatedSF 13 Hadi Rushdy 6' 2" 2nd Colegio San Agustin – Makati Academic deficienciesSF 14 Khasim Ali Mirza 6' 4" 5th La Salle College Antipolo GraduatedSG 17 Aljohn Gil Ungria 6' 1" 2nd Colegio de San Lorenzo Relegated to Team BPF 18 Allein Gail Maliksi 6' 4" 4th Camarin High School GraduatedSG 20 Andrew Joseph Felix 5' 11" 2nd PAREF Southridge School Academic deficienciesSF 21 Marco Martin Cam 6' 0" 2nd San Sebastian College-Recoletos Transferred to College of Saint Benilde

Additions SF 5 Kim Kaizen Lo 6' 1" 1st St. Jude Catholic School RookiePG 6 Edcor Marata 5' 10" 1st University of the Visayas RookieC 13 Paulo Lorenzo Pe 6' 4" 1st Ateneo de Manila RookieC 14 Vincent Roberto Tinte 6' 7" 1st Urdaneta City National High School Transferred from Far Eastern UniversitySG 17 Fritz Harmon Delgado 6' 0" 1st San Sebastian College-Recoletos RookieSF 18 Eduardo Daquioag, Jr. 6' 1" 1st RTU Laboratory High School RookieC 20 Kenneth Mamaril 6' 5" 1st San Sebastian College-Recoletos Promoted from Team BPG 21 Jackson Wong 5' 10" 2nd Philippine Academy of Sakya-Manila Returning from Season 71

Schedule and results Preseason tournaments In October 2009, speculations that head coach Pido Jarencio had been fired began to surface. This was related to the past unsuccessful seasons that followed their 2006 championship. Manila Bulletin had written an article about it on October 5, but the school's Institute of Physical Education and Athletics officials, namely Director Fr. Ermito de Sagon and Assistant Director Mrs. Felicitas Francisco were quick to dismiss them as rumors. Jarencio's live contract will expire in March 2010 and from then officials will make an assessment of his tenure. The coach himself dismissed the rumor during an interview in July. He had confirmed receiving offers from the NU Bulldogs, but also said that he "never thought of leaving UST unless they didn't want him there anymore."

Jarencio's contract was extended to December 2010.

According to Jarencio, "UST did not join the major preseason games for fear that it would affect the morale of the players." Another reason for skipping the summer tournaments was the problems that they encountered in recruiting players. UST Tiger Cubs standouts Neypes and Labing-isa have decided to play for National University after graduation and are currently undergoing residency. Neypes was actually included in the Bulldogs' roster when they competed in the 2010 Filoil Preseason Cup.

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.

UAAP statistics Jeric Teng 14 29.4 63 173 36.4 26 77 33.8 29 42 69.0 4.3 1.9 0.8 0.1 2.7 12.9 Tata Bautista 14 21.1 47 131 35.9 40 111 36.0 22 30 73.3 1.3 1.2 0.6 0.1 1.3 11.1 Jeric Fortuna 14 33.2 55 157 35.0 22 66 33.3 13 18 72.2 3.6 4.7 1.1 0.1 3.1 10.4 Chris Camus 14 31.7 56 141 39.7 4 18 22.2 14 33 42.4 8.9 1.6 1.1 0.7 1.9 9.3 Melo Afuang 14 24.9 47 102 46.1 1 7 14.3 22 31 71.0 6.4 0.8 0.6 0.4 2.1 8.4 Aljon Mariano 14 19.4 42 87 48.3 14 28 50.0 10 19 52.6 3.0 0.9 0.2 0.4 1.9 7.7 Paolo Pe 14 21.1 21 51 41.2 0 1 0.0 5 15 33.3 3.7 0.4 0.2 0.4 1.2 3.3 Ed Daquioag 14 9.2 14 36 38.9 4 17 23.5 6 12 50.0 1.4 0.9 0.6 0.0 0.9 2.7 Eddie Aytona 12 4.8 3 12 25.0 0 2 0.0 2 2 100.0 0.3 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.5 0.7 Pipoy Marata 6 2.8 2 3 66.7 0 0 0.0 0 0 0.0 0.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.8 0.7 Kenneth Mamaril 12 2.7 2 3 66.7 0 0 0.0 0 0 0.0 0.6 0.8 0.0 0.2 0.5 0.3 Vince Tinte 8 2.9 1 2 50.0 0 0 0.0 0 0 0.0 0.8 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.3 Kim Lo 11 4.2 0 7 0.0 0 0 0.0 0 0 0.0 0.6 0.4 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.0 Jackson Wong 8 2.4 0 0 0.0 0 0 0.0 0 0 0.0 0.4 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.9 0.0 AC Marquez 5 4.0 0 3 0.0 0 0 0.0 0 0 0.0 0.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Total 14 41.1 353 908 38.9 111 327 33.9 123 200 61.5 34.9 12.8 5.3 2.5 16.9 67.1 Opponents 14 41.1 369 865 42.6 66 253 26.1 189 307 61.6 38.7 15.6 5.6 3.8 16.7 71.0

Source: inboundPASS

Aftermath Because the Growling Tigers did not participate in any major preseason tournaments, they were not scouted by the other UAAP schools and were able to pull off wins early in the first round of eliminations. They were even third in the standings at 3–2 at one point late in the first round.

Like the other UST Growling Tigers teams, the 2010 squad had heavily relied on their three-point shooting, and when their shots had failed to connect, the losses began to pile up, mostly on double-digit deficits.

According to head coach Pido Jarencio, this team was more of a stop-gap in preparation for the university's quadricentennial celebration. "Some of the players I recruited are really made for 2011." One of the players that he was referring to was incoming Cameroonian rookie Karim Abdul who had undergone a one year residency and will be able to suit up for the Tigers next season to beef up the team's short front line.

Jarencio who has a deep pool of players from the Team B training team, has plans for a major revamp on the current team. "If nothing happens (to UST) next year, I will exit the team," added the coach.

References