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By Eddie G. Alinea, Contributor
BOTH coaches Franz Pumaren of La Salle and Dindo
Pumaren of the University of the East agreed that at least, for the
next nine days, they have to forget that they are brothers.
The elder Franz and Dindo, siblings of Filomeno
“Pilo” Pumaren, himself a former player and basketball guru,
will be facing each other starting tomorrow in the hunt for the UAAP
men’s basketball championship for their respective schools.
The Red Warriors grabbed the first finals slot
by sweeping their 14 games assignments in the two-round elimination
while the Green Archers earned the right to dispute the title by
surviving a three-team semifinal round that also involved Ateneo and
dethroned champion University of Santo Tomas.
“Yeah, I guess we have to temporarily set
aside that we belong to one family at least for the duration of the
best-of-three championship series,” said Franz Monday, a day after
his Archers repeated over their archrivals Blue Eagles, 65-60.
“Both of us are in a competitive sport and we
both have a job to perform, that is winning the title for our
respective team,” Franz added, drawing concurrence with Dindo, the
youngest of Pilo and wife Yeyet’s brood of four boys, that include
another mentor, Derek, who is now handling Talk ‘N Text in the PBA,
and the eldest Teofilo III.
“We are both professionals and we’ll just do
the jobs assigned to us so, yun na nga, kalimutan muna na mag-utol
kami. Three games lang naman ito kung tatagal ang series,” Dindo
said.
“Manalo’t matalo naman, I think both of us
are already winners. Biro mo nasa history na kami pareho. Bihira
naman ang magkapatid o magka-relasyon na maglaban sa championship.
Kaya kahit ano mangyari, dapat masaya pa rin,” he added.
Both agreed too that it will be an exciting
series with both teams having advantages and disadvantages against
each other.
Dindo, who incidentally, is the only one among
the three siblings who did not study in UE, believes that the
Warriors enjoy an advantage in their athleticism. “My boys, I
think, have more intensity and aggressiveness and more importantly,
we are hungrier because UE hasn’t won a title since 1985 or 22
years ago.”
He admitted that Franz and the Archers have the
advantage because of their championship experiences.
“Si Franz, marami nang pinagdaanang
championship playoffs. Same with his boys. Kami wala pa, but what I
can promise is we will be there playing our best to give UE its
first championship in more than two decades,” Dindo vowed.
“UE must be in high spirit on the strength of
winning all its assignments in the elimination round. Malaking bagay
yun,” said Franz.
The last time, and probably the first time that
two siblings handled different teams in a championship series was in
2003 when Joel Banal, then coaching Ateneo, and Koy battled for the
same UAAP championship won by the younger Banal.
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