Bullpups start barking in UAAP; Bulldogs also making noise

MANILA, Philippines -  All bark and no bite. Perennial whipping boys.

Slowly but surely, National University is doing away with the unpleasant tag.

And the NU Bullpups are the ones initiating it this season by way of their fast start in the 73rd UAAP juniors basketball tournament where they remained unbeaten so far for a share of the early lead with defending champion Ateneo.

Behind rookie Roque Estoce and veteran Kevin Lara, the Bullpups edged out the Adamson Baby Falcons, 54-51, in their last outing to post their third straight win, marking the very first time the team is off to a 3-0 start in the 33-year history of the tournament for high school players.

“First time in the history na mag 3-0 yung juniors team namin and share the early lead. Kaya naman management is truly happy with the way we’ve started this season. Of course, mahaba pa ang laban, but the thing is, we’re taking steps in the right direction,” said well-known champion coach Junel Baculi, now the NU athletic director.

The Bullpups earlier beat University of the East, 80-56, and followed it up with a thrilling 67-65 decision over University of Santo Tomas, a team that routed them last season by a whopping margin of 60 points.

Last year, the Bullpups finished seventh in the 72nd season of the country’s most popular college league, notching only two wins in 14 games, both of them at the expense of UPIS.

Baculi’s decision to tap NU alumni Jeff Napa and Chico Manabat to handle the junior squad may have rubbed off on the Bullpups as the two had been proven winners in the past. Napa and Manabat were teammates in the only Bulldogs team that made the UAAP men’s Final Four in 2001.

 But the juniors squad is just a piece of NU’s ambitious design to further strengthen the school’s sports program since new management under Hans Sy, took over last year.

 Baculi said the men’s team, now handled by Eric Gonzales, is likewise competitive this season behind old marksmen Kokoy Hermosisima and Joseph Terso and rookie big man, Cameroonian center Emmanuel Mbe.

The Bulldogs are so far 1-2 in three outings, with many-time champion La Salle as its primary victim, 59-47. They even had title favorite Far Eastern University on the ropes, leading the Tamaraws, 57-64, in the final six minutes only for them to falter in the stretch and lost, 76-72.

Baculi believes the aggressive approach in its program is one main reason why there is sudden resurgence as far as sports on the campus is concerned, and part of that approach is to name at least one team manager per sport in events where it competes in the UAAP, sort of the godfather policy prevalent in local sports.

The reorganization already bore fruit last season when the NU’s men’s baseball team made it to the UAAP 72nd season finals, although it was swept by Adamson in the best-of-three series. Still, it marked the first time the Bulldogs made the championship series since the late 60s.

Volleyball is one other sport where NU is making its mark, having been invited recently to compete in the Shakey’s V-League. The school has just recruited the sister tandem of Dindin and Jaja Santiago.

“Our rebuilding began as early as last year actually,” said Baculi, who has been athletic director for more than two years. “But alam mo naman especially sa mga school programs, it really takes time bago talaga makita yung bunga. You just have to be patient with it.”