Five years ago, the UST Growling Tigers made the UAAP Season 82 Finals and seemed poised to contend in the years to come thanks to an up-and-coming roster. But then, a lot has happened since then. 

The COVID-19 pandemic and the training camp snafu, high turnover within the roster, and the ensuing losses followed that finals appearance and the Growling Tigers could not end their slump. For a community with one of the most energetic fanbases (that even leaves opposing schools in awe), six wins in three seasons felt far too little and downright demoralizing. 

UAAP Season 87, however, may offer a different narrative.

UST head coach Pido Jarencio returned to the Growling Tigers in Season 86 and began laying the foundation through recruitment and implementing his system with the holdovers. Finishing 2-12 wasn’t a pleasant sight, but everyone understood that it was all about the long game. 

The results have thus far revealed themselves in Season 87. 

As of this writing, UST already matched their Season 86 win total two games into Season 87.  The Growling Tigers blew by the UE Red Warriors during the opening weekend, but their best victory thus far came against the Ateneo Blue Eagles. 

It was a battle in the trenches that started out close before UST pulled away thanks to their size advantage. The Blue Eagles were playing with some sense of urgency following their opening day loss to the UP Fighting Maroons and had the momentum to earn their first victory in Season 87. However, the Growling Tigers used an 18-4 run to expose the inexperience and lack of depth that will hound ADMU’s frontcourt for much of this season. 

With the victory, UST earned a share of the top spot with the DLSU Green Archers a week into Season 87. The cherry on top was that it also ended a nearly decade-long losing streak to Ateneo. 

Jarencio remains part of the old guard, having won a UAAP championship with the Growling Tigers almost 20 years ago in UAAP Season 69. One season won’t be enough to judge his second stint with UST, but he will need to keep up with the times in order to succeed. Things seem to be trending in that direction as he has already bucked previous traditions (and yes, traditions are not law). 

Sticking to what matters has worked at the moment, as in the two wins, the Growling Tigers have been more deliberate with its ball movement, in part because of the addition of controversial guard Forthsky Padrigao. The 23.0 assists UST averaged in a couple of Season 87 games were a significant jump compared to the 14.1 assists per game they averaged in Season 86. The Growling Tigers’ scoring has also gone up (72.0 points per game in Season 87 versus 67.6 points per game in Season 86), while their defense (58.5 points allowed per game in Season 87 versus 81.1 points allowed per game in Season 86) has held well thus far. 

The UST Growling Tigers are tied with the UE Red Warriors for the second-most UAAP Men’s Basketball championships at 18, but winning largely eluded the Growling Tigers in recent years and only remained a pipe dream. So far, though, UST has had a perfect start to their UAAP Season 87 campaign and while that may not last, it’s the step in the right direction to the path to a return to glory.