2016 UST Growling Tigers men's basketball team

With the graduation of Kevin Ferrer, Ed Daquioag and Cameroonian Karim Abdul, sports analysts have predicted UST to miss out on a final four finish in Season 79.[5]

Subtractions

Pos.	#	POB	Player	Height	Year	High school	Notes
SG	5		Janus Kyle Christian L. Suarez	6' 2"	3rd	Ateneo de Manila	Out due to ACL injury
SF	7		Kevin M. Ferrer	6' 4"	5th	University of Santo Tomas	Graduated
SG	8		Eduardo D. Daquioag, Jr.	6' 0"	5th	RTU Laboratory High School	Graduated
PG	10		Osama Said S. Abdurasad	5' 10"	2nd	Kaunlaran High School	Transferred to Arellano University
PG	12		Janrey L. Garrido	5' 6"	3rd	Hope Christian High School	Out due to hamstring injury
C	20		Karim Abdul	6' 6"	5th	Sta. Clara International Academy	Graduated

Additions

Pos.	#	POB	Player	Height	Year	High school	Notes
PF	5		Regie Boy C. Basibas	6' 3"	2nd	Arellano University High School	Returning from Season 77
PF	7		Jason M. Strait	6' 4"	1st	Arellano University High School	Rookie
SG	8		Oliver Wendell D. de Guzman	5' 8"	1st	Nazareth School of National University	Rookie
PF	12		Jon Cornelius E. Macasaet	6' 3"	2nd	San Sebastian College-Recoletos	Returning from Season 77
C	17		William Kwabena Afoakwah	6' 6"	1st	Kumasi	Transferred from De La Salle University
C	20		Tsutomu M. Tateishi	6' 9"	1st	Ateneo de Davao University	From Team B

Boy Sablan replaced Bong dela Cruz as the head coach following controversies surrounding the latter.[6]

Almost two months after falling short of winning the title against the FEU Tamaraws in the UAAP Season 78 men's basketball finals, Dela Cruz became the subject of an administrative investigation stemming from complaints of physical and verbal abuse that he allegedly made against some of the players in the roster.[7]

Short of calling it a preventive suspension, the Institute of Physical Education and Athletics (IPEA) through their director Fr. Ermito de Sagon, have asked him to inhibit himself from team activities until after investigations were completed and a decision on his tenure has been made.[8]

As a result, Dela Cruz stopped attending team practices beginning January 25, 2016.[9]

Rumors surfaced that Bal David was among those who were being considered to replace Dela Cruz,[10] but eventually, it was Sablan who was selected to be the new coach in late May where he signed a one-year contract for the upcoming UAAP Season 79 basketball tournament to be hosted by UST.[11]

Dela Cruz was not terminated, but instead, management decided to no longer renew his contract which expired on June 1, 2016.[12]

Sablan was a Glowing Goldies teammate of former PBA player Pido Jarencio in the 1980s, who he also served under when he was the head coach of the Tigers from 2006 until 2013.[13]

Before the start of the season, the UAAP came out with a new ruling that would lower the age limit of student-athletes from the previously-accepted 25 years to 24 years. This would mean that two of the three graduating Growling Tigers would be considered overaged for the upcoming UAAP tournament.[17]

Team captain Louie Vigil, Fil-Canadian point guard Jon Sheriff and forward Kent Lao were on their final playing year in the Tigers roster, but only Vigil and Sheriff would be affected by the new rule. Sheriff turned 25 on July 31,[18] while Vigil would be the same age on September 26.[19]

Vigil was already considering signing up for the PBA rookie draft in October[20] when the UAAP decided to defer implementation of the said rule. Protests lodged by concerned schools and affected athletes were instrumental in the reversion of the age eligibility rules. This was announced after the UAAP board of trustees convened in their annual planning session in Spain.[21]

Elimination games were played in a double round-robin format. All games were aired on ABS-CBN Sports and Action.

Times listed above are in UTC+08:00

• The Future

Reeling from one of their worst finishes in the UAAP Men's basketball tournament, the UST faithful were eagerly awaiting Steve Akomo's completion of his residency so that he can finally suit up for the Tigers and lead them back to their winning ways.

The Cameroonian center has proven to be a reliable reinforcement when he led the University of the Visayas to the CESAFI finals in 2012 against Ben Mbala who was then playing for Southwestern University.

During the Adamson-UST post-game interview at the MOA Arena last November 9, UST coach Boy Sablan introduced Akomo to the press as the go-to guy for the Tigers alongside Joco Macasaet, Zach Huang and Regie Boy Basibas in their UAAP campaign for the next season.

Macasaet, Huang, and Basibas, who were all in their second playing year, started the game for UST against the Falcons, while the veteran group of Louie Vigil, Kent Lao, Marvin Lee and Renzo Subido were benched, allegedly for disciplinary reasons. Sablan justified the action by saying that he was giving the fans a preview of the Tigers' future brand of basketball, in reference to the trio and Akomo.[23]

• The Past

Former head coach Pido Jarencio, who gave the Tigers the 2006 UAAP Championship title and a back-to-back finals appearances in 2012 and 2013, indirectly gave the UST community a glimmer of hope when he sent out a controversial tweet from his social media account on December 6.

The message reads, "I am just a call away," and a follow-up tweet had Jarencio exclaiming, "let's bring back the glory!"

Fans were quick to attribute his messages to the dismal performance of the team in the tournament, which was quite the opposite of their finals run the previous year. Jarencio later confirmed in interviews that he was actually willing to come back to coach the team on two conditions: if the position for head coach became vacant and if the management and the UST community wanted him back.[24]

Jarencio resigned as UST's head coach in January 2014 in exchange for a coaching job in the PBA.[25]

• Departure of Key Players

On May 4, Renzo Subido announced his plan to skip the upcoming UAAP Season 80 basketball tournament. In a Twitter post, he explained how he was dissatisfied with the way that he has played during the course of his three-year college career. He also added that he planned to join the PBA D-League where he was hoping to improve his skills.[26]

A week later, Mario Bonleon made a similar tweet about taking time off from the team. On May 11, he had cited experiencing burnout as one of the reasons for wanting to leave the team. He also expressed his intention to join a D-League team during his time away from the Tigers.[27]

• Rumored Dissatisfaction With the Coach

The Growling Tigers joined the Filoil Flying V Preseason Premier Cup in the summer, but failed to make it past the elimination round, losing 7 games against only 1 win. This was highlighted by a 39-point loss to the LPU Pirates.

Because of the Tigers' poor showing in the tournament, various reports began to circulate about some players' growing dissatisfaction with their head coach,[28] which resulted to speculations that Coach Boy Sablan was on his way out as the team's chief tactician.[29]

Sablan, whose one-year contract expired on May 31, 2017, had undergone a surgical procedure on his gallbladder on May 15 was unable to coach the team during the tournament. Assistant coaches Tylon Dar Juan and Bam Ledesma took over practices and coaching duties.[30]

Sablan has belittled the rumors of his replacement, pointing out that there was not much time left for a new coach to prepare the team in time for the September 9 tournament opening.

Dar Juan and incoming team captain Marvin Lee have also come out to Sablan's defense.

Lee denied the report that some of his teammates wanted to leave the team by explaining that the players were given permission by the coaching staff to go on leave. He was referring to Regie Boy Basibas, Zach Huang, and Joco Macasaet who were all absent during the game against the San Beda Red Lions.

Dar Juan, on the other hand told reporters that Sablan was not in physical shape to coach the team after going through surgery, but added that the head coach was actually present during the May 21 game against the Letran Knights.[31]

According to a tweet from former Varsitarian sports editor Alex Cerado on June 20, Sablan's contract has been renewed for another year.