With UAAP’s final verdict on the spitting allegations, the matter has reached its conclusion…Hasn’t it?
UAAP Season 87 may very well be remembered as the Season of Spit.
It’s been almost a week since the dramatic battle between the Green Archers and Fighting Maroons, but if you’re anything like us, it may have felt longer, as we have all been on the edge of our seats waiting for a verdict from the UAAP regarding the incident between DLSU Head Coach Topex Robinson and Reyland Torres.
To bring you up to speed, UP filed a formal complaint to the UAAP Ethics Committee after Sunday’s game got ugly in the third quarter. The complaint was directed against Coach Topex, whom UP’s Reyland Torres accused of spitting on him.
Although Robinson denied these spit allegations on the night of the game, the UP team stood together and rallied behind Torres, and the UAAP performed an investigation on the matter to decide their next course of action.
The verdict? The UAAP Board of Managing Directors (BMD) announced that after a thorough investigation, they have issued “stern warnings to DLSU Head Coach Michael Christopher “Topex” Robinson and UP student-athlete Reyland Torres for their unsportsmanlike conduct.”
Though only stern warnings were issued after this particular incident, the UAAP specified, “Both Coach Robinson and Mr. Torres are hereby warned that any future violations of the UAAP’s tournament guidelines will result in stricter penalties.”
The statement also revealed that the UAAP was unable to find conclusive proof of Robinson spitting on Torres. However, they did find that both parties exhibited unsportsmanlike behavior that could not be left unaddressed. Hence the stern warnings (you can read the full statement here).
Lasallians will be relieved to discover that their coach will not be facing any suspensions for this incident. On the other hand, however, this is not the result that UP filed their case for. Thus, even now that the course of action (or a lack thereof) is clear, it is still unlikely that this matter will be put to bed for good just yet.
What do we know about the incident?
A trip down the spitgate social media rabbit hole will reveal a number of different stories.
After the game, Reyland Torres revealed to Tiebreaker Times, “Dumaan lang kasi ako sa harap ni Coach Topex, hindi ko naman alam bakit niya ako dinuraan.” On the other hand, Topex Robinson vehemently denied this statement, asserting to the same source, “Yes, me and Torres exchanged a few words, but I did not spit at him.”
From there, it was all the UAAP fans wanted to talk about — and they had a lot to say.
Some social media users began re-sharing an 11-year-old video where former basketball players pointed to Robinson’s history of spitting in the PBA. Other users who claimed to have witnessed the incident also posted their own accounts of what happened, some of which have gone viral.
As fun as it is to play detective, these bits and pieces to the story are all hearsay.
Adding fuel to the fire, a recent article by the Philippine Star also revealed that Coach Topex told the UAAP Board that this is what Reyland Torres said upon passing him on the bench: “*ang ina niyo, nagkakagulo na kayo.” In turn, Robinson added that he “rebuffed Torres but never spat at him,” as explained in the article.
In addition, it was also shared in the article that after Torres went back to the UP side and made the spitting allegations, this prompted the UP coaches to point at the DLSU bench and use the derogatory word “squatter,” directed at the La Salle head coach. Allegedly, this is what sparked the fight in front of the fans in MOA Arena.
Again, these are all testimonies and should be taken with a grain of salt.
The only viral video on social media that held at least a little bearing was a closeup video of the incident in question, which was posted and reposted many times on X. The video shows Reyland Torres walking past Topex Robinson. As he passes the DLSU coach on the sidelines of the court, he holds his jersey up to cover his mouth, and after passing by, he looks behind his shoulder and begins to point to his shoulder in the direction of the referees.
Now, many people shared their own interpretations of what went down during this exchange in an attempt to fill the gaps, but public interpretations had no bearing on the actual investigation of this case.
All the video shows is a short interaction that does not directly point to Topex spitting, nor does it directly point to Reyland trash-talking the La Salle bench. And the UAAP has come to the same finding.
In the official UAAP statement, they explained, “The investigation has revealed that both individuals displayed behaviors that do not reflect the values of sportsmanship upheld by the UAAP and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA).
“Specifically, it was found that Mr. Torres passed in very close proximity to Coach Robinson twice. Coach Robinson, in turn, responded with language unbecoming of a coach.”
Addressing the main issue at hand, the UAAP stated, “Additionally, allegations that Mr. Torres used profane language and that Coach Robinson spat on Mr. Torres could not be conclusively proven based on testimonies and available evidence during the investigation.”
So if you’re looking for facts amidst all the noise, let’s review.
Reyland Torres did pass by Coach Topex Robinson on the DLSU side two times, as confirmed by the league’s statement. The UAAP revealed that Coach Topex responded with “language unbecoming of a coach.” After the game, Reyland stood firm on the spitting allegations, while Topex denied them. After UP filed a formal complaint, an investigation was held, which also included testimonies from multiple parties. Based on the investigation, no conclusive evidence was found that could point to the allegations at hand.
This is all we know for sure, and with this information, no sanctions have been handed out, just stern warnings for both parties for their unsportsmanlike behavior.
Where should we go from here?
Quite frankly, nowhere. Now that a verdict has come through, ideally, the debates would end here.
But it might be asking too much from the UAAP fans from either side to put this in the past, even now that the UAAP BMD has come to a conclusion on the matter. Just seeing how both sides strongly defended their teams on social media over the last week was enough to have us expecting the same kind of reaction from the verdict. The UP fans are going to back their player, the DLSU fans are going to defend their coach, and this will all be a fueling addition to an already heated UP-La Salle rivalry.
Oh, the drama of disagreement. It keeps you glued to your social media feeds, that’s for sure. But our hope is that after this verdict, even though the two sides may not see eye-to-eye, we can at least come to an agreement on two things: number one, that spitting and the use of foul language have no place on the UAAP courts, where student athletes and coaches are viewed as role models to younger generations, and number two, that both sides could do better at upholding sportsmanlike behavior.
Regardless of what truly transpired on the court, we hope that the blow-up of this incident will at least make players and coaches think twice before acting (or reacting).
But even with a decided course of action, this chapter can’t be considered closed just yet. No one will be forgetting about this incident any time soon, if they will forget about it all. Spitgate will be a topic of conversation in both teams’ games moving forward — and as UP and DLSU are both favorites to enter the finals, there could be a long way to go.
But ultimately, the fact remains that there was not enough conclusive evidence to suspend either of the parties. A stern warning is all they get this time around. So here’s hoping we can all just go back to the basketball of it all.
Banner images from UAAP Media Bureau.