2007 UST Growling Tigers men's basketball team

The 2007 UST Growling Tigers men's basketball team represented University of Santo Tomas in the 70th season of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines. The men's basketball tournament for the school year 2007-08 began on July 7, 2007 and the host school for the season was also UST.^[1]

The Tigers, the Season 69 champions, ended the double-round eliminations in joint fourth place with the FEU Tamaraws with eight wins and six losses.^[2] They then won over FEU in the playoff for the fourth and final semifinal slot. UST held the Tamaraws to a season-low of 6 points in the second quarter.^[3] They were eliminated by the Ateneo Blue Eagles in a knockout game of the first round of the stepladder semifinals for the right to face the second-seeded De La Salle Green Archers in the second round.^[4]

UST suffered back-to-back losses at the start of the season but recovered by winning four of their next five games to finish the first round at third place with a 4–3 record.^[5]

Two of their games went into overtime. The first was an 86–90 first round loss to La Salle who had rejoined the league after serving a one-year suspension in Season 69 for fielding ineligible players in the past three years.^[6] Their other overtime game was also against La Salle who they got back at in the second round with an 81–73 win. They have defeated the Green Archers for the first time since the 1999 finals where the Tigers lost in a three-game series with Game One also going into overtime.^[7]

Jervy Cruz was named Most valuable player of the season.^[8] He topped the statistical points tally with 75.9 at the end of the second round of eliminations on top of 11 double-doubles that included two playoff games.^[9] The last UST player to win the MVP was Chris Cantonjos in Season 58. Cruz was third in the league in scoring with an average of 16.7 points per game behind the 21.3 average of Adamson's Patrick Cabahug and the 17.6 points per game of NU Bulldogs' Edwin Asoro. He led the league in rebounds with a 15.4 per game average.

Francis Allera was chosen Player of the Week by the UAAP Press Corps for the duration of July 19–22,^[10] while Khasim Mirza received the citation twice on the week of August 2–5^[11] and August 23–26.^[12]

Roster[]

UST Growling Tigers roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name Height Year High School SG 5 Badua, John Hector M. 5'11" (1.8m) 1st University of Santo Tomas SF 6 Ababou, Dylan Simon R. 6'3" (1.91m) 3rd Siena College of Quezon City PF 7 Canlas, Mark Angelo C. 6'5" (1.96m) 3rd Don Bosco Academy, Pampanga SG 8 Espiritu, Anrhony C. (C) 6'4" (1.93m) 5th University of Santo Tomas PF 9 Gile, Melchor C. 6'4" (1.93m) 3rd – PF 10 Dizon, June Y. 6'4" (1.93m) 5th San Sebastian College-Recoletos SG 11 Basa, John Darryl A. 6'1" (1.85m) 1st University of Santo Tomas PG 12 Cortez, Jose, Jr. P. 5'10" (1.78m) 5th University of Santo Tomas SF 14 Mirza, Khasim Ali G. 6'4" (1.93m) 3rd La Salle College Antipolo SG 16 Allera, Franciz Philip A. 6'3" (1.91m) 4th Dole Philippines School C 17 Taylor, Chester Lloyd C. 6'4" (1.93m) 4th Colegio San Agustin PG 18 Cuan, John Paul S. 5'7" (1.7m) 4th University of Santo Tomas C 19 Soriano, Francis A. 6'6" (1.98m) 4th – C 20 Cruz, Jervy A. 6'4" (1.93m) 4th Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College PG 21 Scott, Rum Perry I. 5'9" (1.75m) 5th St. Joseph School	Head coach Alfredo M. Jarencio Assistant coach(es) Rhuel S. Acot Senen Z. Dueñas Julian Rabbi M. Tomacruz Rodil S. Sablan Strength & conditioning coach(es) Emmanuel Calipes Edwin A. Escobar Arlene Chua-Chiong Maya Team manager Clarence D. Aytona Timmy Chong Rudy Yu Legend (C) Team captain Injured Roster

Depth chart[]

Roster changes[]

Subtractions[]

Pos.	#	POB	Player	Height	Year	High school	Notes
SG	5		Andre Charles D. Marquez	6' 3"	2nd	La Salle Greenhills	Relegated to Team B
SG	11		Joselito M. Duncil	6' 1"	5th	Balucuc High School	Left team to turn professional
SG	14		Jemal B. Vizcarra	6' 1"	5th	Adamson University	Graduated
PF	21		Allan E. Evangelista	6' 3"	5th	San Sebastian College-Recoletos	Graduated

Additions[]

Pos.	#	POB	Player	Height	Year	High school	Notes
SG	5		John Hector M. Badua	5' 11"	1st	University of Santo Tomas	Rookie
SG	11		John Darryl A. Basa	6' 1"	1st	University of Santo Tomas	Rookie
SF	14		Khasim Ali G. Mirza	6' 4"	3rd	La Salle College Antipolo	Transferred from World Citi Colleges
C	19		Francis A. Soriano	6' 6"	4th
PG	21		Rum Perry I. Scott	5' 9"	5th	St. Joseph School	Transferred from Lyceum of the Philippines University

Ineligibility issues[]

Jojo Duncil, Season 69 Finals MVP, has announced to the team of his decision to turn professional and forego his last playing year in the UAAP.^[13]

It was revealed on July 2, 2007 during the press conference for the upcoming UAAP Season 70 by Institute of Physical Education and Athletics (IPEA) director Fr. Ermito de Sagon that Duncil's age eligibility was being questioned by other member schools after it was discovered that Duncil had two NSO certificates that showed varying data. One certificate had 1983 as Duncil's year of birth while another had shown that he was born in 1982.^[14]

According to Fr. de Sagon of the host school for the season, the team has decided to exclude him from the roster to avoid future games being put in protest which can only cause distraction to the rest of the team. De Sagon added that Duncil, being the rector's nephew is undoubtedly only 24 years old and is eligible to play this season.^[15]

Preseason tournaments[]

2007 Nike Summer League[]

• Tournament record: 1W–5L

2007 Filoil Flying V Preseason Invitational Cup[]

• Tournament record: 2W–5L

UAAP Season 70 results[]

Elimination games were played in a double round-robin format. All games were aired on Studio 23.

Times listed above are in UTC+08:00

Individual statistics[]

Eliminations[]

Playoffs[]

Postseason tournaments[]

2007 Philippine Collegiate Championship[]

• Tournament rank: 4th (2W–2L)

Times listed above are in UTC+08:00

Awards[]

References[]