Lyceum of the Philippines University opened NCAA Season 99 with three straight wins.
The Pirates defeated Season 98 finalists De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde and Colegio de San Juan de Letran, and a tough squad in the University of Perpetual Help System-DALTA.
In these games, different Pirates stood out such as JM Bravo, John Barba, Enoch Valdez, and Shawn Umali.
For LPU head coach Gilbert Malabanan, the team being unpredictable is one of the keys in their good start this season.
"'Yun sinabi ko last season hanggang ngayon, my team is very unpredictable. Hindi mo talaga alam sinong puputok sa team na ito," Malabanan said after escaping Perpetual, 76-73.
"As you can see in our scoring, medyo balanced talaga," he said. "Anybody can be a best player."
(Like what I said last season until now, my team is very unpredictable. You would not know who will erupt. As you can see in our scoring, it's balanced.)
For Malabanan, having the buy-in of the players into their system is important, adding that not having a sole top player is a good problem.
"Mas maganda 'yung gano’n hindi kami nai-iscout individually," he said.
(It's better that way so they won't scout us individually.)
—JKC, GMA Integrated News
