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AFTER
coach Joe Lipa made the announcement that people in UP
were after his head for the Fighting Maroons’ dismal
showing in the UAAP, it’s been open season for
intriguing news items, eyebrow raising text messages and
gripey grape juice from the grapevine about the UPMBT.
(That’s the UP Men’s Basketball Team.)
The UP
Fighting Maroons, if you still don’t know, are suffering
through their worst season ever in the league that UP
cofounded with FEU, NU and UST back in prewar 1938. True
that UP has had only one postwar championship title to
its name so far. But true too that even if it has never
booked another trip to the finals after 1986 (the year
it beat UE for the UAAP crown), it has never in the
league’s history kissed the floor with this kind of
smack before.
Sure,
it’s had groan-inducing fourth-quarter collapses in
immediate seasons past when the Maroons were then still
handled by former UPIS mentor Joselito Vergara. But
never these gruesome double-digit defeats, the biggest
being a 40-point blow-out dealt by UE. Which
incidentally sports the same numbers in the score board
as UP: 0 and 13. Only, it’s the other way around.
POOR
coach Joe. A mentor as eminent and as bemedalled as he
doesn’t deserve to be in his current predicament. Always
principled and oft times ceremoniously cavalier, coach
Joe dished it out in his gentlemanly best when asked
what was wrong with the UPMBT. “I assume full
responsibility,” he said. And hinted he would resign
after the last regular game of the basketball season.
That
opened the flood gates exceedingly wide. After Lipa’s
pronouncement, news flew in chat rooms and online
forums. Students and alumni heard names of possible
replacements and next steps to be taken by UP hierarchy.
After media frenzy swirled with coach Joe’s preemptive
announcement, no statements or pronouncements were
issued by UP or the College of Human Kinetics, which is
the college in charge of the university’s athletic
participations.
Now, in
my Communication Theory class, this kind of
condition—called a vacuum—is breeding ground for the
most intricate of rumors. There are two necessary
conditions for rumor to fly: Ambiguity and importance.
The more ambiguous the situation—meaning, if there is no
definite pronouncement or announcement and things are
just left to hang—the more people will speculate and
fill in the blanks. Involved audiences will volunteer
their own opinions and offer their own conclusions just
to close the gap or put closure to the matter. How they
fill in those blanks depends on their expectations,
their wishes, or so-called logical conclusions. They are
usually untrue.
THE
other element that creates rumor is importance. The more
important a subject matter is, the more attention is
given to it. So people are bound to discuss, nitpick and
speculate about what to them is important matter: The
fate of the UP Men’s Basketball Team. Will its present
coach go? If so, when? And yes, who will take his
place?
And as
the rumor is transferred from person to person, the
details drop off, the telling is made easier, the
message is sloganized. Each person in turn—again, in the
absence of any formal pronouncement—feels free to
embellish the details, or pick away at chips of whatever
truth there is until he or she is comfortable with the
piece of “news” he or she is sharing. And so the rumors
swell.
WHAT is
truth and what is rumor about coach Joe’s fate with the
UP Fighting Maroons? I really don’t know, but here is
what I know about how the UP system goes and what’s
unique about the University’s sports program.
First,
there is no such thing as a three-year or five-year
black-and-white contract for UP coaches. The appointment
for coach comes from the College of Human Kinetics and
these are one-year contracts only. Coach Joe’s contract
lasts till December of 2007—not 2008 or 2010. But
contracts can be renewed from year to year. This I was
told by the highest sources in the College themselves.
Second,
there are no plans to pull the plug on coach Joe on
September 17, as the text messages (that clearly reflect
“educated guesses”) say. Being systematic, if sometimes
bureaucratic (because it is a government institution),
UP is religious about thoroughness. It cares about that
“guy” named Joe. Also called “Joe Process.” Teams and
coaches are evaluated at the end of every season. The
basketball team being the first team to end its season
this year will be evaluated first.
Third,
Eric Altamirano’s and Ronnie Magsanoc’s names have risen
like white smoke from the Vatican as possible
replacements for Joe Lipa—should he go. But I know for a
fact that neither of the two ’86 Maroons are doing or
planning anything to take over the Maroons bench. In
fact, Altamirano who coached the Maroons in 1995 and
1996 said: “I played for coach in college. He was a
mentor to me and I deeply respect him. I sympathize with
his predicament at UP, but nobody has contacted me
formally.”
Ronnie
Magsanoc adds: “I have always been a fan of the Fighting
Maroons. I will continue to support the team whether it
is up or down in the standings. Coach Joe Lipa gave UP
its only title in 1986, therefore due respect should be
accorded to him in this difficult situation.”
So no,
there is no Nose Lift or Nose Job being planned by UP on
Da Venerable Nose after the regular playing season
formally ends on September 17.
Knowing
UP, and the
College of
Human Kinetics,
it will accord coach Joe the highest respect as an
illustrious alumnus who gave UP its only UAAP crown in
the postwar season. It will go through the evaluation
process, but it won’t unceremoniously boot him out as
paranoid minds suspect, or be unkind to a respected
member of its community.
Ironic,
however, that coach Joe–who gave UP its proudest UAAP
moment in 1986—should also now be at the helm of the
team during its bleakest days in the celebrated U
League.
But
that’s life. And that’s basketball. It’s a numbers game.
But who’s counting? |
