Sauler trims rotation, impresses yet again

The UAAP season was on the line and another loss to the UST Growling Tigers would have meant the end for the DLSU Green Archers. The UST community was ready to celebrate a championship as they filled the arena with gold for the second game of the best-of-three UAAP finals, but it was those in green who went home with smiles on their faces and a renewed sense of hope.

Once again, the brain behind the victory was DLSU head coach Juno Sauler, the stoic rookie mentor who has gained a massive following and tremendous respect for his cool demeanor. In their crucial do-or-die game against UST, Sauler decided to play only seven out of the 13 players on his roster, three less from his usual rotation, and it paid dividends as the Green Archers performed like a well oiled machine. However, he never seems to be satisfied with how his boys play, even at the height of their nine-game winning streak this season, and this pushes the team to continue improving.

“They need to have a better output in the fourth quarter, I think we only scored 13 points [in Game Two], the lowest output [in a quarter] of the game. Maybe they were tired, maybe my choice was wrong and hopefully we can score more than 13 points [in the fourth quarter of the next game],” shares Sauler after the crucial 77-70 win in the second game of the finals.

Fatigue may have been a factor, with the five starters logging at least 30 minutes apiece during the game. Playing only Thomas Torres and Norbert Torres off the bench to relieve his starters, this ensured that the Green Archers would always have formidable height on the court, with N. Torres, Arnold van Opstal and Jason Perkins alternating duties in the two post positions.

UST’s frontline felt the pressure from this tactic, as their only legitimate centers, Karim Abdul and Paolo Pe, fell into foul trouble early in the game and it allowed the Lasallian trio to have their way inside. They combined for 36 points and 30 rebounds while as a team, DLSU out-rebounded their foes by 18, 57 to 39, with the diminutive guard LA Revilla even adding 10 rebounds of his own . The Green Archers also had a 27 to 10 edge in the offensive rebound department and it led to 18 second chance points which were crucial in the victory.

“Yeah, we got a lot of second chance points, everyone contributed well,” added Sauler. When asked if his team exerted themselves inside the paint, he quickly replied, “What do you think? I think it’s self-explanatory.”

The perimeter players stepped up as well, and the rotation of Jeron Teng, Almond Vosotros, T. Torres and Revilla allowed him to balance their height advantage inside with a fair dose of speed, quickness and good ball handling skills on the outside. This helped the Green Archers dictate the tempo of the game and on defense, it made them quicker to react as they challenged every shot from the perimeter.

La Salle finished with 16 assists and just eight turnovers, dwarfing UST’s output of seven assists and 10 turnovers. They also managed to double UST’s output in the steals department as they took the ball away four times. This pleased Sauler and he gave a rare praise to the team saying, “I know we did a good job today in assist to turnover ratio.”

Despite all of the superlatives and positive points that can be gathered from his team’s performance in second game of the finals, Sauler remains unsatisfied and his gaze is fixed on winning the third and final game to finally end the championship drought of DLSU. As a matter of fact, the Green Archers will get back to work as soon as possible. Sauler concludes his post game interview with a stern look and he concludes by saying, “We start working on improvements starting tomorrow.”