With deeper and more experienced bench, Chambers confident of Tamaraws UAAP Season 88 title hopes

MANILA, Philippines -- Onwards and upwards for the Far Eastern University Tamaraws. 

Barely missing out on a Final Four berth last season, FEU is one of the dark horse contenders this UAAP Season 89. 

The Tamaraws, led by Janrey Pasaol, Jorick Bautista and Mo Konateh, have one of the most talented rosters in the league. 

Holdovers Adam Nakai, Rojan Montemayor, Luke Felipe and Kirby Mongcopa are all expected to take huge steps forward, while Elias Gish, Marc Burgos and Cabs Cabonillas will inject youth to the team. 

“Sometimes you got to be careful what you ask for, right? Because right now… my first year when we had 10 freshmen, I didn't know who to play. I didn't have enough guys to play. And then last year, our bench still was kind of limited. I played maybe eight or nine guys,” Chambers said. 

“But, you know, now I'm feeling like we’re like any team that's gonna compete in the league, with the UPs and the La Salles where I can go 13 players deep and I feel confident in all 13 guys. So, now I got to figure out how to manage that,” he added. 

He emphasized that the deep bench right now is a good problem to have. 

“We have to make sure we get a chance to play everybody who can contribute. And it's a good problem to have now. Before, I used to look down the bench and go, okay, you guys stay in. So, this is good.” 

Despite losing Rookie of the Year Veejay Pre last season, FEU posted a 7-7 win-loss record, finishing fifth in the elimination round.

Pasaol also seemingly came out from the outskirts to the top of the MVP race, but it was not enough to tow the Tamaraws to the semifinal round. 

Now, Pasaol’s maturity really rose, Chambers said, as the guard is now focusing more on defense. 

“I think his intention is to play defense more this year. We can score against any team. But our focus now is how many stops can we make in a row? How many times can we make teams into bad shots?” the coach said. 

“We can score with anybody with the addition of Cabanillas and Kirby Mongcopa and Jedric [Daa] and Rojan and Luke. And even Adam Nakai's been playing well. And Marc Burgos is a good big time scorer. And then also, Elias Gish is really good. So, we can score with anybody, but we have to make stops,” he added. 

This is also the first season that the Tamaraws will face off against Pre, who came to the seniors’ squad after graduating from FEU’s juniors’ team. 

Pre is now with the University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons, transferring from FEU after a season. 

“It's still a wound. It's still open. It still hurts, but we all had to grow from it. But I do think, I'll never say it doesn't hurt to lose Veejay, but it's hard to not imagine what this team would look like if we had Veejay today,” he said. 

“But everything happens for a reason, and I think the guys we have on our roster now is because of what happened with Veejay, if that makes sense. So we made sure we held on to our guys now.” 

FEU will kick off its campaign on Sunday against the Adamson Soaring Falcons, 12 p.m., at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.