MCJOUR Luib, who used to play for the Letran Knights during Aldin Ayo’s time there as coach, will be be one of his deputies with the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers.
Ayo coached the Knights to the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship in 2015, with Luib as one of his players.
Luib was formally presented with three other veteran coaches in Bonnie Garcia, Rene Bayna and Kristoffer Co, who will all act as Ayo’s deputies with the Tigers. Garcia is an assistant coach of the junior cage team.
The four were picked a week after the school formally welcomed Ayo as the new UST Tigers’ head coach.
Ayo came in place of Boy Sablan, who steered the Growling Tigers to a 1-13 (won-lost) finish in the 80th University Athletic Association of the Philippines men’s basketball tournament.
The Growling Tigers are looking for a better finish in season 81.
University officials said they chose Ayo because of his discipline-based basketball program and his accomplishments as head coach.
“His basketball program supports the image we in UST wish to draw in the canvass of our student-athletes,” said school officials in a letter to the UST community.
After Letran’s title conquest, Ayo moved to the La Salle Green Archers, who he steered to a UAAP crown in 2016. The Archers lost the title to the Ateneo Blue Eagles the following year.
Ayo is also a product of a Dominican institution and played for the Letran teams that won back-to-back crowns in 1998 and 1999.