Malick Diouf’s replacements? — QMB and Dikachi Ududo are ready to do whatever it takes to win

How will the UP Men’s Basketball Team fare after the key losses of team captain CJ Cansino, and MVP, Malick Diouf? 

That’s a question that has been circulating among UP fans and alumni ever since the end of UAAP (University Athletic Association of the Philippines) season 86, and the question continues to be tossed around now more than ever, both with the UPMBT’s holdovers, and especially with the new faces.

Filling the hole left by team Captain Cansino, we have our new captain: Gerry Abadiano, who leads the team alongside co-captain JD Cagulangan. As for Diouf, taking on the mantle is the UPMBT’s new Foreign Student Athlete (FSA), Dikachi Ududo, with the former UE big man, Gani Stevens, and the newest recruit; the one-and-done Quentin Millora-Brown. In addition to the fresh faces, Sean Alter provides the “kuya presence” as the only center holdover in the roster (Luis Pablo having transferred to DLSU earlier this year, where he is currently serving out residency, while Seven Gagate will be sitting out the season due to an injury.)

The answer to the constantly asked question, however, isn’t held in the hands of those six athletes alone. It’s not held in those six being tasked to somehow fill the hole of what they’ve lost. The answer is held in working with what they do have right now.

“We understand that we have a really deep team,” Millora-Brown said last Saturday, September 7, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. “We have a lot of young guys who are developing, as well as older guys who have good skill sets. So, I think that it’s just a matter of continuing to work with each other and [learning] how to play with each other even better as we get into the season. I think that as we go along, we’ll find out what each of us is best at… and we’ll be able to find what we need to win this year. It’s not going to be the same as the previous year, just as next year, it’s not going to be the same as this year. So it’s just a matter of finding what we have and using what we can”

Millora-Brown emphasizes that what they need is not to find the past Fighting Maroons before them in their team now, but rather, what they need is to find and use what they can with the deep team that they already have in their grasp.

“It’s not going to be the same as the previous year, just as next year, it’s not going to be the same as this year. So it’s just a matter of finding what we have and using what we can” – Quentin Millora-Brown

That mindset seems to run deep within the team, as Ududo, just a few moments after, shared a similar mindset via a short interview.

UP FSA Dikachi Ududo – Photo by: Mika Lukban-Rivera/UP Fighting Maroons Club

“It’s [about] talking about it as a team,” he explained when asked about how he plans to bring his own game, style, and personality to the team. “It’s really not about Dikachi. It’s not about any individual in the team… It’s about the championship and whatever it takes to help bring the championship back to UP.  That’s all I’m going to do: whatever it takes.”

“whatever it takes.”

Two of UP’s big men expected to fill the shoes of Diouf… Even with the pressure of being handed this daunting task, they don’t narrate their story as two characters meant to lead the fairytale to its happily ever after— They hold themselves as singular pieces to a puzzle. As rangers who need the others to make a whole.

It’s not about who’s replacing who, and it’s not about trying to find a new CJ Cansino, a new Malick Diouf. Those two have made their mark in UPMBT history, and they will forever remain pillars that helped carry UP to where they are now, but it’s time for the UPMBT of this UAAP season 87 to hold the torch.

So, whether that be in contributing to the offense, or in contributing to the little things; rebounds, assists, defense, etc., Ududo and Millora-Brown are ready to do whatever it takes.

Ududo and QMB — Photo: UP Fighting Maroons Club

This UP Fighting Maroons Club post is in partnership with Jiang Nan Hotpot.