UAAP: Tams in good spot despite missing out on top seed after first round, says coach
MANILA – Sean Chambers believes the Far Eastern University Tamaraws are still in a good spot despite missing out on the top seed at the end of the first round of the UAAP Season 89 men’s basketball tournament.
The Tamaraws fell to the National University Bulldogs, 69-65, on Sunday at the Blue Eagle Gym. The result gave the Bulldogs the No. 1 spot in the league standings over the University of the Philippines.
A win over NU would have propelled the Tamaraws to the top spot with a 5-2 slate. While disappointed at the missed opportunity, Chambers also points out that they are in a better place compared to Season 88, when they started at 2-5.
“Five and two would have been better, no doubt about it. But last year at this time we were not even in the conversation to be considering the top four, so we were just trying to fight our way back in there,” Chambers told reporters.
“I’m not happy because I, if you know me, I want perfection, I want to be great and I want to always have a high level of success, so, but sometimes you got to go through these bumps to get there, so everybody’s four and three in this league, right?,” he added.
With the race to the Final 4 tighter than usual, Chambers said he was reminded of how the UAAP season is going after watching collegiate football in the U.S.
“All the top teams in the United States all lost today, so it reminds me of college football in the U.S. It’s like it’s that competitive and that game could have went either way with a shot here or a shot there for us and one shot and not for them, could have went either way,” he said.
FEU head coach Sean Chambers in their game against National University in the UAAP Season 89 men’s basketball tournament, October 18, 2026 at the Blue Eagle Gym. UAAP MediaThe FEU head coach also cited external factors that the team had to deal with before and during the game, but despite these he gave credit to the Bulldogs for outdueling them in the endgame. He called the shot clock issues at the Blue Eagle Gym “very disruptive,” but stressed that they are not making excuses.
“But I think we’re the only one in the locker room that doesn’t have an aircon in there, so it’s super hot in our locker room right now, so we had to come back in here for the halftime, which was also kind of draining for us, so I’m not going to say it had an effect, but I’m sweating,” Chamber said.
“Our locker room did not have a working AC, and so we had to endure that during halftime and pregame, but you know, such a beautiful facility, I’m not going to blame the facility, but things happened that we had to find a way to dig in and adjust,” he explained.
Despite all these external factors, the FEU head coach gave credit to the gritty NU squad that turned up the physicality especially down the stretch.
After the game, Chambers told the Tamaraws they need to learn to adjust and handle physicality during crucial parts of the games.
“You got to give credit to the other teams, you know, it just happens, you know, the other team did some really good things down the stretch, the second half, and you got more physical, and I don’t think we handled the physicality very well the second half. We didn’t hardly shoot any free throws,” he said.
“I felt like because they were so physical, we were afraid to go into the paint, you know, and get paint touches, so something that we have to learn, because the last two teams for sure are the biggest teams that we play in the hoop. They’re the two biggest teams in the tournament, you know, UST and FEU,” he said
The Tamaraws and the Growling Tigers have an identical 4-3 record, but UST is ahead in the rankings due to a win over the former.