MANILA, Philippines -- National University (NU) head coach Jamike Jarin admits he deserves to be blamed after the Bulldogs suffered their sixth loss of the UAAP Season 81 men’s basketball tournament on Wednesday, bowing to Adamson University with a score of 69-58.

The Bulldogs got off to a brutal start, as they fell behind 27-11 after the first quarter. They outscored Adamson the rest of the way, 47-42, but simply dug themselves into too deep of a hole.

“First of all, I'd like to apologize to the players, to management, the administration, to the schools, to the fans, to the alumni and everybody. Because I take full responsibility for the way we played,” a somber Jarin told reporters after the game, which dropped NU’s record to 2-6.

“We can't blame the players. Again, I take full responsibility,” he stressed.

Jarin said he coached badly, particularly in the first quarter of the game.

“That is just unacceptable,” he said of the 27 points that they gave up to Adamson in the very first frame. “That is just bad coaching on my part.”

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Jarin believes that he could have done a better job in preparing their point guards for the game. As a team, they had a total of only 7 assists, while Jerie Pingoy, by himself, had 8 to lead Adamson. It was especially painful for Jarin to note that their power forward, Troy Rike, had 4 assists while their point guards had none.

“It was just bad coaching on my part in preparing the point guards against their guards,” he said. “So I take full responsibility for that.”

“I take all the blame for it. Again, I repeat, the players, they're not responsible for the bad game -- it was me,” he stressed.

However, NU rookie Dave Ildefonso insists the players deserve their share of the blame. The young forward was the only Bulldog in double-digits, scoring 21 points as the rest of his teammates struggled in the face of Adamson’s defense.

“Nakakahiya na para kay Coach Jamike,” said Ildefonso, who also had 6 rebounds in the game. “Nakakahiya, kasi inaako niya lahat ng mga mali, even though kami ang naglalaro sa loob ng court.”

Ildefonso revealed that Jarin had used an old idiom to describe their predicament: “You can bring the horse to the river, but you can’t force the horse to drink the water.” The rookie said that their coaches are “doing a really good job” in preparing them, but the Bulldogs are just struggling to translate that preparation into victories.

“Siguro, the problem na lang is with the players,” Ildefonso admitted. “Ako din, I should be able to contribute more, I should be more of a leader, and I should also get the offense going more.”

Regardless of who is to be blamed, the reality is that NU right now is at 2-6, good for just seventh place in the league standings. Their Final 4 hopes are dimming with every playdate.

“We really need to re-think, 'di ba? Re-think right now what we should be doing. It's really disappointing right now that we're in this situation,” said Jarin. “We could have easily had three more wins, but that’s not the case right now.”

“We got six more games to go, so we're looking at UST right now, how to prepare better, how to get another victory on Sunday,” he added.

University of Santo Tomas was one of the teams that NU beat in the first round, as the Bulldogs seized a 75-70 triumph over the Growling Tigers in the first game of the season. Since then, however, UST has improved mightily and they enter Sunday’s game with a three-game winning streak.

For Jarin, however, they have to focus on themselves first, before dwelling on what UST is doing.

“I have to look at the things that we need to do, not at the things they're doing eh. I don't have any control with that. The only thing that we need to do right now is to stop what they're gonna do, and do the things that we should be doing against our opponents, not only UST,” he said.

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