With the UAAP Season on a two week hiatus, The LaSallian catches up with Green Archer rookie Jason Perkins and get his thoughts on the first round, his first La Salle – Ateneo game (and the Mochiko they earned), and what he expects in the second round.
In the first round, I was expecting to do a little better as a team, but it was okay. I think for the second round, we’re going to be a lot more prepared and more ready. It helped us see the areas we need to work on so when we get to the second round, well, we’re going to make a big impact.
Compared to last year, school’s gone up a notch. It was kind of a lot harder. Last year, when I was playing for the Fr. Martin Cup team, school and basketball were pretty easy. But now with UAAP, sometimes I miss classes with games and practices and it’s kind of hard sometimes to catch up. My group mates are really cool though, in all my classes, like in my math class I have a lot of really nice group mates that help me catch up.
My first La Salle – Ateneo game was crazy. I was so nervous and my heart was beating hard before I got there. I could already hear the crowd, everyone was already walking it. The atmosphere’s a lot different, it’s a lot different, but when I was on the court, I kind of forgot about it because I was so focused but, before that I was so nervous. Since we won the game, we brought home the Mochiko to Taft. It was my first time to try it. It was really good and it was a good start for my day.
I wanna beat Ateneo again, but since FEU’s the top team, I wanna beat FEU really bad. Also, I like going against other top 4’s. I wanna play against them.
In the second round, we’re going to execute a lot more. Everything’s going to be a lot cleaner, and we’re going to work a lot harder. Also, we’re going to be a lot more mentally prepared, knowing the other teams, especially with the players experience-wise. Experiencing games against the other players of the other teams, it helps with the preparation for the other games.
We’re pretty much just kinda working so that we execute a lot cleaner. It gets a little sloppy in the game so we’re working on that. It’s really the execution in the endgame that’s the problem.
Also, free throws were a problem. We’re always practicing, we’re always shooting, especially with coach Juno and coach Allan too. We’ve really got on it now, especially since we just started practicing at seven-thirty in the morning until nine then we practice again in the afternoon. In the morning we practice our free throws. Against Adamson, we shot pretty well though, I think at around 80 percent. At half-time, Jeron was just practicing free throws, and every time he got one in, the crowd would just get up and cheer.
Just like in the Fil-Oil [Preseason Cup], some of my family members got to watch my games. I have family from Pangasinan and they all kinda came down so that was also fun for them to experience.
When it comes to our chances this season, as a team, siymepre! I think we’re gonna make it to the finals, I think we could. Every game we lost, it was really close, it’s kind of like we made ourselves lose. There was just a string of a lot of little mistakes that are going to be fixed, so I think we’re going to make it.
With the two week break, I might follow the FIBA Asia tournament. I know a couple of players but not really all of them. With games this coming week and maybe the next, I might check them out.
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Who exactly is Jason Perkins? Find out about the Green Archers’ recruit at this link: http://thelasallian.com/2013/06/11/green-gallery-jason-perkins-the-hefty-lefty/
Read the first volume of Perkins’ journal here:
http://thelasallian.com/2013/07/10/green-journal-jason-perkins-v-1/
Check out the third edition of his journal here:
http://thelasallian.com/2013/09/12/green-journal-jason-perkins-v-3/
The fourth chapter of Perkins’ journal:
http://thelasallian.com/2013/09/30/green-journal-jason-perkins-v-4/
Perkins will continue writing his journal for The LaSallian. You can follow the rest of his journey monthly at http://thelasallian.com
