Coach Joe should stay to continue UP program

By Bill Velasco
The Philippine Star
Thursday, September 20, 2007

Despite the embarrassing 0-14 record posted by the University of the Philippines in this UAAP season, a group of UP students, alumni and professors believe that the blame should not be laid upon the shoulders of head coach Joe Lipa.

Some, in fact, have gone on to say that he should stay on, since he has started a long-term plan that few are aware of.

“Two years ago, nobody wanted to take the job. It was a recipe for disaster,” said Ronnie Dizer, a professor of the College of Human Kinetics and Lipa assistant for the past few years. “There was no long-term plan, and the coaches recruited players who had already finished their playing years with other schools. It was a dead-end.”

Dizer said that Lipa took the job despite better-paying offers from government and private institutions, and even had to contend with fund-raising himself.

“How could we recruit, when the college was not giving anything? We had nothing to offer players, so we could not build up,” Dizer added.

“There was no money for the basketball team. Some of the coaching staff were even working as volunteers.”

This was clearly illustrated with a cursory look at the UP bench during the season. The Maroons had a sparse brain trust compared to half a dozen assistants for some other schools, who even had scouts walking around with laptops. For UP, they were more concerned with the basics.

“It’s unfair to blame everything on coach Joe,” explained Dizer, who had been with UP for years before joining Lipa’s coaching staff. “We didn’t even have allowances for the players, not even money for their shoes and tape for their feet. His time was divided between practice and fund-raising.”

Although Lipa has always been known as a firebrand and tough trainor, he is still the only one to have brought UP its only UAAP title.

The Maroons coaching staff say that players now have a decent hostel to live in – albeit five to a room – and eat three square meals a day, thanks to the efforts of Lipa, who they claim raised more than P1 million for this season through his connections with alumni, fraternities, and other donors. He has also managed to find funding to pay his assistants and utility men a meager salary, and is still looking for ways to help the team get better.

An examination of the “Oblation Nation” forum on gameface.ph shows little blame being placed on Lipa by concerned and disappointed UP bloggers. In fact, some have already posted advice to look ahead, play more games, and build the team’s chemistry. Others have even suggested pulling out of the UAAP due to financial limitations. There is hardly any mention of Lipa failing as a coach.

As for the Maroons, things are looking ahead to 2008, the university’s centennial. They have reportedly recruited Vinnie Burke, the 6’5” teammate of Ateneo rookie Kirk Long at Faith Academy. Burke will be unable to play for the Blue Eagles, since Long will likely get the bulk of the playing time allocated to the team’s foreign player.

There are also other name high school players who are looking forward to playing for UP, but only if Lipa stays.

Other concerned alumni, who requested anonymity, decry the highly-politicized situation in the university, adding that other factions who have had their chance to run the basketball program are trying to bring Lipa down to give themselves another chance at running the Maroons.

“Coach Joe has created a long-term program. The players have played hard, but there were things beyond their control,” one of them told The STAR. “Despite the limited resources, the coaches have already sacrificed a lot to put together a program that will bear fruit soon.

“We are only three or four recruits away from being a Finals team. And those recruits will join the team, because they want to play for coach Joe,” Dizer said.

Lipa himself has privately said he would accept whatever the university decides, although he still has a live contract. But for the people around him, it’s a matter of letting him bear the fruits from the seeds he has planted.