NU Bulldogs’ PJ Palacielo during a UAAP Season 87 men’s basketball tournament game against La Salle Green Archers. –UAAP PHOTO

National University (NU) was supposed to be among the favorites of the UAAP Season 87 men’s basketball tournament.

And then, right in the Bulldogs’ very first game, their journey veered sharply off-path: Mo Diassana, the team’s foreign student-athlete (FSA), suffered an injury after playing only four minutes in the first quarter.

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NU hung on against La Salle in that opener, before eventually falling, 78-75.

And the spiral would not stop.

“We don’t regret anything,” coach Jeff Napa told the Inquirer on Wednesday. “There’s a purpose why everything happened to us in the first round.”

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An FSA is like an import for programs that do not have the same depth of talent as the defending champions, or the University of the Philippines Maroons. And without their great equalizer, the Bulldogs lost five of their seven first-round assignments and watched their season slowly circle the drain.

But then, the second round happened.

Somehow, the Bulldogs managed to win against three of the four teams currently sitting inside the Final Four: No. 4 University of Santo Tomas (UST), No. 2 University of the Philippines (UP) and, on Wednesday, No. 1 La Salle.

NU’s 63-54 shocker against the reigning UAAP kings gave the school a 5-9 (win-loss) record on its way out and gave Napa something to take home as consolation prize.

“[I am] still proud [of the whole team] despite adjusting late to our loss (Diassana),” Napa said. “That’s what I asked them: to do their best, to perform at their best despite everything that happened so they can at least still see what they can do.”

Graduating seniors

In their swan song to this season, PJ Palacielo delivered 16 points and eight rebounds and Jake Figueroa contributed 14 points. As a whole, the Bulldogs delivered a reason to hope for a better finish next season.

“I have been confident with my team ever since. Although we faced adversities … I am happy with [their] performance,” Napa said. “They did their part, they tried to raise the bar despite the adversities and so we have something to look forward to next year.

“We will use this season as motivation to be better.”

With graduating seniors Donn Lim and Patrick Yu, the rise of NU now falls to the hands of key figures such as Figueroa, Palacielo, Steve Nash Enriquez, Jolo Manansala, Kenshin Padrones and Reinhard Jumamoy.

“We knew ever since the start of the season where our place is. [But] the adversities [happened] … we aren’t thinking about [those] anymore,” Napa, a product of NU himself, said. “But we always knew within ourselves that we were supposed to be among the teams at the top.”