Aldin Ayo’s coaching grit and toughness came from a school that won a pair of National Collegiate Athletic Association titles through sheer hard work, rugged defense and solid chemistry — Letran College.
Former Knights coach Louie Alas said he was no longer shocked when Ayo rose from being a mere role player into one of the best young coaches in the country today.
In fact, there was fire in Ayo’s eyes every time he got his number called, making him the most reliable backcourt defender in Alas’ rotation during their title runs in the country’s oldest collegiate league in 1998 and 1999.
“All of my guards at that time — Aldin Ayo, John Prior, Jose Pacheco and Anthony Lim — gave me a hard time to choose who among them will I use during games,” Alas said in the recent episode of Down To The Wire podcast of Daily Tribune.
“But what served as my basis was who among them will be the best fit on how we run our defense, from our full-court pickup defense, forcing turnovers and delaying the opponents’ offense. These guards are all mature enough, but Aldin has the most serious demeanor among them.”
Ayo definitely absorbed Letran’s macho, in-your-face brand of basketball and integrated his own style, leading to the creation of “Mayhem Basketball,” the system that gave the Knights the 2015 NCAA crown and De La Salle University the 2016 University Athletic Association of the Philippines title.
Now, Ayo is with Converge, battling other coaching geniuses like Tim Cone of Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, Chot Reyes of TNT Tropang Giga and Norman Black, who is now the consultant of Meralco, in the Philippine Basketball Association.
Chris Calaguio, the team captain of that celebrated Letran squad, said Ayo is both physically and mentally ready to win game in and game out.
‘All of my guards at that time — Aldin Ayo, John Prior, Jose Pacheco and Anthony Lim — gave me a hard time to choose who among them will I use during games.’
“The first thing that you would notice on Aldin when he was a player were his biceps. If we want toughness from the guards, then he’s the man,” said Calaguio, who played in the Metropolitan Basketball Association, PBA and the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League.
“He had provided huge support whether as a starter or coming off the bench. That’s what makes the 1998 team so special. Everybody is capable of stepping up and Aldin was one of them.”
Another star of that Letran squad, Kerby Raymundo, added that Ayo was so intense that they nearly fought in practice.
“I think it was me and Aldin who were locked up by Coach Louie inside the gym as we were both tough who don’t want to lose even in practice,” Raymundo said.
“I remember, it was Erwin Velez who was trying to pacify us.”
He stressed that Ayo is such a true friend — on and off the court.
“But Aldin was so nice to us. He would bring us to his family during weekends. Aldin would bring us, those who were less fortunate at that time, to their home. We would spend the weekends there and on Sunday, we would return to our quarters in Letran,” Raymundo said.
“At that point, you could easily tell that Aldin has the making of a good coach as he was able to build the camaraderie of the team and I felt it helped us in our 1998 campaign. We always spend time together during weekends throughout the year.”
