The 2019 UST Growling Tigers men's basketball team represented University of Santo Tomas in the 82nd season of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines. The men's basketball tournament for the school year 2019-20 began on September 4, 2019, and the host school for the season was Ateneo de Manila University.

The Tigers returned to the playoffs for the first time since Season 78 after finishing fourth in the double round-robin eliminations with an 8–6 record. The FEU Tamaraws finished with the same win–loss record but were ranked higher due to a superior +6 quotient over UST.

They eliminated FEU in the first round of the stepladder semifinals before defeating the second-seeded UP Fighting Maroons, who held a twice-to-beat advantage, in the next round to advance to the Finals against the undefeated Ateneo Blue Eagles.

The Blue Eagles went on to sweep the Finals series to complete an unprecedented 16–0 season and cap a three-peat championship run that began in Season 80. UST, which featured nine new players on its roster, was the only team to lose to Ateneo by a single point during the season. Their first-round meeting ended in a 70–71 defeat.

Beninese center Soulémane Chabi Yo was named the season's Most Valuable Player, while former Tiger Cubs one-and-done and Mythical Team member Mark Nonoy won the Rookie of the Year award. This marked the first time in a decade that UST players won both the MVP and Rookie of the Year awards. Dylan Ababou was named MVP, while Jeric Teng won Rookie of the Year in 2009.

Rhenz Abando, a transferee from the Philippine College of Science and Technology in Pangasinan, was named Player of the Week by the UAAP Press Corps for the period of September 4–8, while team captain CJ Cansino, who had suffered a season-ending ACL injury the previous year, received the same honor for the week of October 16–20, 2019.

Season records UST averaged a winning margin of 12.8 points and a losing margin of 8.7 points.

They had a blowout win over the UE Red Warriors, defeating them 101–73 in the second round of eliminations. Their 101-point output was the highest scored by a team in the season. It eclipsed their opening day record of 95 points which was also against UE. Prior to the game, the Tigers had not scored more than 90 points since Aldin Ayo took over as head coach. It was during the first round of Season 80 when UST scored 91 points in a losing effort to also the Red Warriors on their 11th consecutive loss that dated back to the second round of Season 79.

UST made a record 49 three-point shot attempts in their opening game against UE, 15 of which were by Abando. The Tigers also have the most number of three-point field goals converted with 16, as well as the highest total field goal attempts made in a game with 95, converting also a record high 39 shots.

The team also held the most number of free throw attempts and conversions with 42 and 28 respectively. This was during their second-round game against the Adamson Falcons where both teams committed a combined total of 21 team fouls in the first quarter.

UST also recorded the fewest turnovers made in a game with 6 during their second-round match against UP .

Roster

Depth chart

Roster changes Cameroonian center Steve Akomo has used up his eligibility but is ably replaced by the Beninese Soulémane Chabi Yo, a transferee from Colegio de San Lorenzo who led the Griffins to the 2017 UCBL championship.

Mario Bonleon and Season 81 team captain Marvin Lee decided to forgo their final playing year to join the commercial leagues. Bonleon announced to the team that he was not coming back due to recurring injuries. He had made his decision before the Tigers played their last game of the season. Lee was the team's second leading scorer last season behind Renzo Subido and had played long minutes in UST's preseason games but was advised by their head coach to pursue playing in the MPBL in lieu of his final year in college. His Season 81 scoring average was 14.4 points per game.

Germy Mahinay and Joshua Marcos also played in the preseason, but both decided to transfer to other schools with Mahinay going to National University and Marcos to College of Saint Benilde. Toby Agustin, who saw limited action last season also transferred to Mapúa University.

Aldin Ayo's twofold rebuilding plan to hold on to players from the UST high school program, could not be any more evident this season with the arrival of UST Tiger Cubs team member Mark Nonoy, La Union native Rhenz Abando, and Davao City rookie standout Deo Cuajao.

Nonoy himself was scouted while he was in his junior year at Hua Siong College in Iloilo. He was representing Western Visayas in the Palarong Pambansa where he scored 43 points in a game against the Northern Mindanao team. He earlier scored 41 points for Hua Siong in their championship win over Bacolod Tay Tung High School in the 2018 Iloilo Invitational 17 Under Boys Basketball tournament.

Subtractions C 0 Steve Cedrick Akomo 6' 9" 4th Lycée bilingue de Fondonera Age ineligibilitySF 4 Mario Emmanuel Bonleon, Jr. 6' 3" 5th La Salle Greenhills Forwent final year to play in the MPBLPG 6 Dean Marvin Lee 5' 8" 5th Far Eastern University–Diliman Forwent final year to play in the MPBLSG 7 Joshua Miguel Marcos 6' 0" 2nd La Salle Greenhills Transferred to College of Saint BenildeSG 8 John Kenneth Zamora 5' 11" 3rd Arellano University High School Relegated to Team BPG 10 John Mark Lagumen 5' 11" 2nd San Beda University–Rizal Transferred to Arellano UniversitySG 15 Toby Bryan Agustin 6' 1" 2nd José Rizal University Transferred to Mapúa UniversityC 26 Germy Mahinay 6' 6" 2nd San Beda University–Rizal Transferred to National University

Additions SF 3 Brent Isaac Paraiso 6' 2" 3rd De La Salle Santiago Zobel School Transferred from De La Salle UniversityPG 6 Mark Nonoy 5' 8" 1st University of Santo Tomas RookiePF 8 Sherwin Concepcion 6' 3" 1st Malayan High School of Science Promoted from Team BSG 10 Rhenz Joseph Abando 6' 2" 3rd Bactad East National High School Transferred from PhilCSTSG 17 Miguel Pangilinan 6' 0" 1st Nazareth School of National University Promoted from Team BSF 19 Ferdinand Asuncion, Jr. 6' 2" 1st Chiang Kai-shek College Promoted from Team BSG 21 Alberto Bordeos, Jr. 6' 0" 1st La Salle Greenhills RookieC 23 Soulémane Chabi Yo 6' 6" 2nd Université d'Abomey-Calavi Transferred from Colegio de San LorenzoSG 30 Vince Petdeo Cuajao 6' 1" 1st Holy Child College of Davao Rookie

Recruiting class Mark Nonoy PG 5' 8" University of Santo Tomas La Carlota, Negros Occidental 18 Feb 20192019 NBTC rank: #4Sherwin Concepcion PF 6' 3" Malayan High School of Science Tarlac City 20 Mar 20182017 NBTC rank: #11Vince Petdeo Cuajao SG 6' 1" Holy Child College of Davao Davao City 6 Jun 20192019 NBTC rank: N/A (Finals MVP, Davao leg)

Coaching staff Aldin Ayo went into his second year as the head coach of the Growling Tigers, but not without controversies. A rumor that originated from an anonymous tweet in April claimed that Ayo had been fired as coach of the Growling Tigers, but UST's school publication, The Varsitarian later clarified that he was actually giving up his post as consultant of the juniors' basketball program to concentrate on rebuilding the seniors' team.

This led Bonnie Garcia to step down from the seniors' coaching staff to replace Ayo in the juniors' program. Garcia is the coach of the UST Tiger Cubs basketball team that placed fifth in Season 81 on a 7–7 win–loss record.

The Varsitarian further clarified that Ayo had actually signed a three-year contract and not six years as reported last year.

Aside from Garcia, assistant coach Randy Alcantara also left Ayo's coaching staff after he was selected by the Mapúa University Cardinals senior men's basketball team in December 2018 to replace Atoy Co as their new head coach. Alcantara was the coach of Mapúa's juniors' team who had just won their third straight NCAA championship earlier in November.

Tapped to replace Garcia and Alcantara were former Arellano Baby Chiefs player JR Carlos and former captain of the Growling Tigers Jino Manansala.

Jino, the son of former Philippine Basketball Association Rookie of the Year Jimmy Manansala played under Coach Aric del Rosario alongside Cyrus Baguio, Niño Gelig, Alwyn Espiritu, Christian Luanzon and Emmerson Oreta. He is the current head coach of reigning NAASCU champions Saint Clare College of Caloocan. He has also coached the AMA University Titans and the University of Manila Hawks to the 2006 and 2010 NAASCU championships.

This season also saw a change in the team manager position with Jimi Lim of Ironcon Builders replacing Chuck Dumlao of FMR Corporation.

Schedule and results Preseason tournaments

The Filoil Preseason Cup and the PBA D-League games were aired on 5 Plus and ESPN 5.

UAAP games

Elimination games were played in a double round-robin format. All games were aired on ABS-CBN Sports and Action and Liga. The first game of the Finals series was aired on ABS-CBN and ABS-CBN Sports and Action.

Postseason tournament

The games of the Philippine Collegiate Champions League were aired via livestreaming on Facebook and YouTube.

UAAP statistics Eliminations Soulémane Chabi Yo 14 14 31.3 94 182 51.6 0 8 0.0 49 70 70.0 14.7 1.3 0.6 0.9 1.5 16.9 Rhenz Abando 13 5 22.3 53 148 35.8 32 104 30.8 21 37 56.8 5.0 1.0 0.7 1.2 2.2 12.2 Mark Nonoy 14 6 20.7 42 145 29.0 26 98 26.5 34 51 66.7 3.9 2.3 0.7 0.0 2.3 10.0 Renzo Subido 14 9 22.0 38 94 40.4 20 56 35.7 19 27 70.4 2.1 3.5 0.2 0.0 1.3 8.2 Sherwin Concepcion 14 3 16.7 33 109 30.3 25 74 33.8 14 17 82.4 4.4 0.9 0.1 0.0 0.6 7.5 Brent Paraiso 14 10 20.6 34 94 36.2 19 62 30.6 6 13 46.2 4.4 1.7 0.6 0.1 2.1 6.6 CJ Cansino 14 8 17.2 31 82 37.8 13 41 31.7 10 17 58.8 4.3 1.6 0.6 0.2 1.6 6.1 Zach Huang 14 4 14.8 29 65 44.6 12 26 46.2 13 24 54.2 3.9 0.9 0.1 0.0 0.9 5.9 Dave Ando 14 1 12.5 20 46 43.5 1 2 50.0 3 6 50.0 3.1 0.6 0.1 0.4 0.3 3.1 Ira Bataller 13 9 16.8 8 37 21.6 0 6 0.0 11 21 52.4 2.9 1.1 0.1 0.0 1.5 2.1 Nat Cosejo 4 0 2.3 2 3 66.7 0 0 0.0 1 2 50.0 0.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.3 Deo Cuajao 11 1 5.8 5 24 20.8 3 14 21.4 0 0 0.0 1.0 0.4 0.0 0.0 0.3 1.2 Migs Pangilinan 4 0 3.1 1 1 100.0 0 0 0.0 0 0 0.0 0.8 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.5 Albert Bordeos 6 0 4.7 0 7 0.0 0 4 0.0 1 2 50.0 0.5 1.5 0.0 0.0 0.7 0.2 Enric Caunan 2 0 5.4 0 0 0.0 0 0 0.0 0 0 0.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Junjun Asuncion 1 0 3.3 0 1 0.0 0 1 0.0 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Total 14 40.4 387 1,038 37.3 151 498 30.3 184 287 64.1 49.9 15.9 3.7 2.8 15.4 79.2 Opponents 14 40.4 402 1,011 39.8 114 374 30.5 141 238 59.2 45.1 15.5 4.9 3.1 14.7 75.6

Playoffs Soulémane Chabi Yo 5 5 32.1 35 65 53.8 0 3 0.0 18 28 64.3 14.2 1.6 1.0 0.4 1.8 17.6 Mark Nonoy 5 0 22.6 23 67 34.3 13 45 28.9 15 20 75.0 4.2 4.6 0.8 0.0 2.6 14.8 Rhenz Abando 5 1 24.4 15 42 35.7 9 29 31.0 17 27 63.0 5.8 0.0 0.6 1.8 0.6 11.2 Renzo Subido 5 5 24.6 19 53 35.8 14 46 30.4 0 1 0.0 2.2 4.8 0.4 0.0 3.2 10.4 Brent Paraiso 5 4 21.2 13 39 33.3 9 28 32.1 6 10 60.0 2.6 0.6 0.4 0.0 2.6 8.2 Sherwin Concepcion 5 0 12.3 8 27 29.6 7 23 30.4 2 2 100.0 1.6 0.8 0.0 0.0 0.4 5.0 CJ Cansino 5 5 20.4 8 32 25.0 0 8 0.0 7 8 87.5 7.8 2.8 0.6 0.2 1.2 4.6 Dave Ando 5 1 11.4 7 15 46.7 0 1 0.0 1 2 50.0 2.0 0.4 0.0 0.8 1.0 3.0 Zach Huang 5 0 13.0 4 17 23.5 1 7 14.3 6 9 66.7 3.0 0.6 0.0 0.0 1.0 3.0 Ira Bataller 5 4 17.0 2 8 25.0 1 2 50.0 0 0 0.0 2.6 1.0 0.0 0.0 1.2 1.0 Deo Cuajao 1 0 2.3 0 0 0.0 0 0 0.0 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Migs Pangilinan 1 0 3.1 0 0 0.0 0 0 0.0 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Total 5 40.0 134 365 36.7 54 192 28.1 72 105 68.6 46.2 17.2 3.8 3.2 17.0 78.8 Opponents 5 40.0 149 362 41.2 39 141 27.7 45 71 63.4 44.8 15.4 5.0 3.0 16.2 76.4

Source: Imperium Technology

Awards Team NBA China runners-up18 Aug 2019 UAAP runners-up20 Nov 2019Soulémane Chabi Yo Season MVP Mythical Five Mark Nonoy Rookie of the Year Rhenz Abando Player of the Week4–8 Sep 2019 CJ Cansino Player of the Week16–20 Oct 2019