Emilio Aguinaldo College head coach Jerson Cabiltes would still not consider their NCAA Season 99 campaign an overachievement even after giving the school its best finish after a decade.
The Generals racked up nine wins and nine losses to finish at the seventh spot, highlighted by an elimination round sweep of De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde as well as wins against two semifinalists last season in Lyceum of the Philippines University and Colegio de San Juan de Letran.
Despite the fight they have shown this season, Cabiltes, who is calling the shots in his rookie year, stressed they still failed as their main goal was to enter the Final Four for the first time in history.
"Actually [in] any season, before you start, you think of a goal and our goal was to make it to the Final Four so for me, I still failed in leading the team to the Final Four," Cabiltes said.
It has been a while since EAC had collected at least nine wins.
The last time that the Generals had a good run was in 2013 when the Gerry Esplana-mentored squad collected a 10-8 win-loss record to wind up at the fifth spot.
In the succeeding seasons, the Generals would struggle, finishing ninth in 2014, 2018, and 2019.
The arrival of Cabiltes, who had seen success in other leagues like MPBL, Asiabasket, and PBA D-League, brought some changes in EAC with the likes of JP Maguliano, Nat Cosejo, and Ralph Robin proving they can match up against some of the best players in the league.
"I don’t think it’s an overachievement na nine wins considering the boys, I know they can play. They’re gonna think whether you underachieve or overachieve but it doesn’t matter. What matters is if you make it to the next round," Cabiltes added.
"Right now, we failed."
Still, the rookie tactician expressed pride on how his wards closed out their campaign after eking out a statement 77-69 win against the Blazers on Wednesday.
"I was very upset last game, we didn’t show up and we didn’t play hard in the first half of our last game and I just reminded the boys that we want to end this season with a win to get a momentum going into the next season," he said.
"We needed to get this win, even though it has no bearing."
—JKC, GMA Integrated News
