The 2008 UST Growling Tigers men's basketball team represented University of Santo Tomas in the 71st season of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines. The men's basketball tournament for the school year 2008-09 began on July 5, 2008 and the host school for the season was the University of the Philippines who were celebrating their centennial year.

UST finished fifth at the end of the double round-robin eliminations. They won six games against eight losses. Two of their games went into overtime. The first was an 86–80 win over the Adamson Falcons in the first round, and the other was a 69–74 loss to the FEU Tamaraws in the second round.

The Tigers' second round losses to FEU and to the De La Salle Green Archers meant that they needed to win their last two games to at least tie the UE Red Warriors to gain a playoff for the fourth and final seed heading into the Final Four. They were fifth in the standings at 5 wins and 7 losses, while UE was fourth with a 7–5 record. They were also hoping for the Red Warriors to lose their remaining two games for a playoff to happen.

The game resulted to a two-point loss for UST. The Tigers had struggled throughout the game with errors and inconsistencies. Their opponent had led by 22 points at the end of three quarters. Head coach Pido Jarencio got ejected, but in a display of grit and determination, UST fought back and chipped away at UE's lead, resulting to a 24–1 run. The Tigers who got eliminated ended up scoring 35 points in the fourth quarter.

Season 70 MVP Jervy Cruz was included in the Mythical team selection during the presentation of awards for Season 71. He had played the entire season while nursing a hamstring injury and even led the MVP race at the end of the eliminations with 75.1 statistical points, on top of a double-double average of 19.8 points and 13.7 rebounds per game. He has led the league in rebounds since his first playing year in 2006. The MVP award eventually went to Ateneo's Rabeh Al-Hussaini who was second in running with 71.1 statistical points.

The Growling Tigers was the season's top rebounding team with a 48.4 per game average.

Roster

Depth chart

Roster changes The Growling Tigers have lost three of their veterans in center June Dizon, point guards Jun Cortez and Rum Perry Scott, and team captain Anthony Espiritu to graduation and are parading eight new players composed of rookies, transferees and players from the Team B training pool.

Subtractions SG 5 John Hector Badua 5' 11" 2nd University of Santo Tomas Transferred to José Rizal UniversitySF 8 Anthony Espiritu 6' 4" 5th University of Santo Tomas GraduatedPF 10 June Dizon 6' 4" 5th San Sebastian College-Recoletos GraduatedSG 11 John Darryl Basa 6' 1" 2nd University of Santo Tomas Relegated to Team BPG 12 Jose Cortez, Jr. 5' 10" 5th University of Santo Tomas GraduatedC 19 Francis Soriano 6' 6" 4th PG 21 Rum Perry Scott 5' 9" 5th St. Joseph School Graduated

Additions SG 5 Clark Daniel Oliver Bautista 5' 9" 1st Benedictine International School Promoted from Team BPG 8 Emilian Vargas 5' 11" 2nd Transferred from Emilio Aguinaldo CollegePG 10 Jeric Marco Fortuna 5' 7" 1st De La Salle Santiago Zobel School RookiePF 11 Carmelo Afuang 6' 4" 1st San Beda College–Rizal Promoted from Team BPF 12 Christopher Camus 6' 4" 2nd Sunny Hills High School Transferred from San Beda CollegeSG 19 Carlos Amador Fenequito 6' 0" 3rd Transferred from José Rizal UniversityPG 21 Jackson Wong 5' 10" 1st Philippine Academy of Sakya-Manila RookiePF 22 Allein Gail Maliksi 6' 4" 3rd Camarin High School Transferred from University of Manila

Injuries The Growling Tigers did not join any major preseason tournaments on two reasons: their veteran players had been busy playing for their commercial teams in the Philippine Basketball League in the summer; and eight of their players suffered various injures before the UAAP tournament.

Jervy Cruz played in all 14 UAAP games while nursing a pulled hamstring which he incurred while playing for the Hapee Fresh Fighters in an out-of-town game in May. Dylan Ababou fractured his right hand while playing for the Harbour Centre Batang Pier. He was healed in time for the opening of the season and played in all of UST's games. Khasim Mirza suffered a broken foot and was also hospitalized before the start of the season due to an improper diet. He missed three games in the first round of eliminations. Japs Cuan, in only the third game of the Tigers suffered a torn meniscus on his knee which required surgery. He was able to return in the second round while playing limited minutes. Allein Maliksi had an ACL injury and was only able to play in one game against the NU Bulldogs in the first round of eliminations. Chester Taylor and Francis Allera had sprained knees during their summer training, while rookie Jeric Fortuna suffered from flu during the season. Other players who missed games were Mel Gile, Chris Camus, Milan Vargas, and Khasim Mirza. They were all given suspensions by the coaching staff during their first-round game against the Adamson Falcons.

Schedule and results UAAP games

Elimination games were played in a double round-robin format and all of UST's games were televised on Studio 23 and Balls.

Postseason tournament

UAAP statistics Jervy Cruz 14 32.5 103 188 54.8 0 0 0.0 71 95 74.7 13.7 0.9 0.4 0.9 2.4 19.8 Dylan Ababou 14 28.2 74 163 45.4 14 53 26.4 58 80 72.5 6.6 1.1 0.6 0.3 3.1 15.3 Francis Allera 14 23.4 52 139 37.4 22 78 28.2 13 17 76.5 5.6 1.3 0.3 0.5 1.9 9.9 Tata Bautista 14 15.6 31 98 31.6 25 82 30.5 10 14 71.4 1.4 1.1 0.1 0.0 1.5 6.9 Khasim Mirza 11 16.5 23 74 31.1 12 41 29.3 13 19 68.4 4.0 0.6 0.2 0.1 1.6 6.5 Badong Canlas 14 21.4 32 93 34.4 0 1 0.0 23 41 56.1 4.8 1.3 0.2 0.3 1.7 6.2 Japs Cuan 10 20.3 14 31 45.2 1 6 16.7 9 20 45.0 3.8 4.0 0.6 0.0 1.7 3.8 Jeric Fortuna 14 15.9 15 56 26.8 7 23 30.4 15 24 62.5 1.7 1.7 0.7 0.0 1.9 3.7 Allein Maliksi 1 5.0 1 3 33.3 1 1 100.0 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 0.0 0.0 3.0 Chris Camus 12 8.1 14 40 35.0 1 11 9.1 3 4 75.0 1.9 0.3 1.0 0.3 0.3 2.7 Chester Taylor 14 11.2 14 42 33.3 0 2 0.0 2 2 100.0 2.2 0.3 0.1 0.1 0.3 2.7 Milan Vargas 7 6.1 6 14 42.9 0 1 0.0 1 5 20.0 0.9 0.6 0.0 0.0 0.6 2.0 Mel Gile 11 10.2 6 18 33.3 1 5 20.0 5 10 50.0 3.3 0.9 0.1 0.4 0.8 1.6 Carlos Fenequito 14 8.0 6 19 31.6 2 7 28.6 5 6 83.3 1.6 0.6 0.1 0.1 0.5 1.4 Melo Afuang 5 1.8 0 3 0.0 0 0 0.0 2 4 50.0 0.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.4 Jackson Wong 3 1.3 0 0 0.0 0 0 0.0 1 2 50.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.3 0.3 Total 14 40.7 391 982 39.8 81 296 27.4 231 343 67.3 48.4 12.9 4.0 2.8 17.2 78.1 Opponents 14 40.7 369 943 39.1 80 294 27.2 252 392 64.3 39.0 14.9 4.8 4.3 14.5 75.9

Source: inboundPASS

Awards Jervy Cruz Mythical team24 Sep 2008 Clark Bautista Tokyo Tokyo All-rookie team

Players drafted into the PBA Jervy Cruz was picked fourth in the first round of the 2009 PBA draft by the Caloy Garcia-led Rain or Shine Elasto Painters team on August 2, 2009. Francis Allera was also selected in the same rookie draft as the 13th overall pick by the Yeng Guiao-coached Burger King Whoppers before getting traded to the Coca-Cola Tigers.

Badong Canlas applied for the 2010 PBA draft but went unselected. He was picked up by the Shopinas.com Clickers the following year, where he reunited with former teammates Jojo Duncil and Khasim Mirza under coach Franz Pumaren.

2009 1 4 4 Jervy Cruz Rain or Shine Elasto Painters 2 4 13 Francis Allera Burger King Whoppers 2011 Signed as a free agent Mark Canlas Shopinas.com Clickers

References