The Blow Keeps on Coming: Promising Second-year Player Jun Asuncion Leaves UST

  • Sep 01, 2020
  • BASKETBALL
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CJ Cansino. Brent Paraiso. Rhenz Abando. Ira Bataller.

When you think about it, those players played a big role in the Growling Tigers' runner-up finish in Season 82 of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP). Now? Cansino is now a Fighting Maroon in Diliman. Paraiso will no longer play college hoops. Abando is rumored to be joining a sister team of the University of Santo Tomas. Bataller's plan is still a big question. Unfortunately, they aren't going to be the last players who are expected to leave the Tigers' den.

As the Growling Tigers and UST as a whole await their fate as the concerned government agencies led by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases are set to discuss USTs' fate for Season 83 and beyond after their "bubble" training in Sorsogon got exposed, the Growling Tigers lost another part of their future as the promising sophomore player in Jun Asuncion will no longer be a part of the team even though he wasn't among the players who participated in the bubble training in the hometown of Coach Aldin Ayo. 

Asuncion only played one game in his rookie season but his performance during the preseason made him a promising part of the Tigers' long term plan. Against the Letran Knights during the 2020 UAAP-National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Challenge of the Philippine Collegiate Champions' League (PCCL), Asuncion had 11 points and that was only the teaser. During their game in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) D-League, Asuncion erupted for 20 points while going five for nine from the three-point line in just nine minutes of action. 

Asuncion is reported to be heading for Mapua in the NCAA where he will be able to play for four more years.

UST has already lost four players since the bubble in Sorsogon popped. With a possible ban in the air, it's expected that more of the players will look for another opportunity to play college basketball elsewhere. 

Photo is from Dugout Philippines