PIDO Jarencio now grins from ear to ear. That’s because his collegiate coaching career is starting to bear fruit.
His University of Sto. Tomas Growling Tigers couldn’t be happier, too.
Why, because UST has just safely roared back into blissful contention by barging into the coveted Final Four Zone.
This was finalized when the Tigers mauled the favored Bulldogs from National University, 80-71, on Sunday at the packed Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
That gave UST an uncatchable 8-5 win-loss record to clinch the third of four seats leading into the semifinals of the UAAP Men’s basketball tournament.
It was a big sigh of relief as Jarencio struggled precariously after huge back-to-back wins against the league heavyweights at the start, slumping next into four straight losses.
“We got a nice record to start the round,” the Inquirer’s Jonas Terrado quoted Jarencio as saying. “Then we had four straight losses. Doubts poured in. ‘Is this UST team a joke?’ No, we’re here, and we’re coming.”
I never doubted UST.
I knew at the start the Tigers would go places after watching UST reinforcement Collins Akowe strut his wares: back-to-back double-double efforts in the team’s first two wins.
The 6-foot-10 Akowe will surely be a force to reckon with in the Final Four now being led by defending champion University of the Philippines and NU, with the fourth and final berth a toss-up among La Salle, Ateneo and Far Eastern University.
La Salle will advance outright with a win over Ateneo on Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025, with FEU also needing to beat UST to forge a 7-7 tie among La Salle, Ateneo and FEU should the Green Archers bow to the Blue Eagles.
That will throw the three to a stepladder to select the last team to the Final Four.
But back to Jarencio.
Do you know that the late Caloy Badion, a basketball Olympian at 16 with a mean drive across the paint and the discoverer of Pido Jarencio, called Jarencio the country’s GOAT (Greatest Of All Time)?
“That’s because Jarencio is a combination of (Robert) Jaworski and (Danny) Florencio,” said Badion, who coached Pido, a dead shot from three-point country, and UST to a UAAP championship in another era.
Badion had said that during one drunken night, when Jarencio was barely starting his PBA playing career in the Nineties. Hic!