It’s a basketball game that fans of the University of the Philippines’ Fighting Maroons will never forget—a do-or-die finals showdown against Ateneo de Manila University in collegiate league UAAP Season 84. Despite nursing a knee injury, CJ Cansino scored 14 points in just 12 minutes, including a clutch three-pointer that tied the game and forced overtime. That pivotal shot led to UP taking the championship—their first in 36 years.
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Three years after that historic win, we’re sitting with Cansino at his shoot for Allure Philippines. His knee is better now, he says, but recovery was hard. “It was mental. It was painful. It took eight to nine months of therapy before I could play basketball again.”
Cansino, who was the team captain of both the University of Santo Tomas’ Growling Tigers and UP Fighting Maroons and a former member of the Iloilo United Royals, now plays professionally for the Meralco Bolts in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) league. To prevent injuries from happening again, the 25-year-old shooting guard focuses on strength training six times a week.
There’s another thing he does daily: meditation. “I started meditating when I got injured in 2018 after my rookie year. I had been doing well in the UAAP, I had good numbers, but then I tore my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament). My mind was messed up.”
Cansino and his trainer, Patrick Tancioco of Better Basketball, tried to find ways for him to get better—and not just physically. “That’s how we work together. It’s on and off the court. We try to find solutions when there’s something wrong. And we saw the practice of meditation as something that could help.”
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Cansino continues to meditate every day. He does it in the car before heading to practice. He does it before a game. He uses the app Calm, closing his eyes and focusing on his breathing as he listens to guided meditations. “It calms me and grounds me,” he says. “As an athlete, you can hit the gym, you can work out, you can do the physical stuff. But what about the mental? That’s the hard part. It’s underrated.”
Basketball isn’t just about talent and physicality, he says. “For me, the physical aspect is just 20 percent of the game. Congratulations if you’re talented. If you have the genes, good for you. But there’s another step for you to reach the next level. You have to work for it.”
Photographer’s assistant: Hallvard Cano. Grooming artist and hairstylist: Cats del Rosario. Stylist: Ton Lao, assisted by Mel Calmante. Zara knitted top. Uniqlo trousers. Traffic shoes.
Frequently Asked Questions
CJ Cansino’s ACL recovery took eight to nine months of physical therapy. He supplemented the physical rehabilitation with daily guided meditation, crediting mental conditioning — alongside his trainer Patrick Tancioco of Better Basketball — as essential to his return to the court.
Cansino uses the Calm app for guided meditation, practicing daily — in the car before training and before games. He focuses on breathing and uses the sessions to ground himself mentally before competition, a habit he began after his 2018 ACL injury.
Cansino considers mental conditioning the hardest and most underrated element of basketball. He frames the physical aspect as only 20% of the game, arguing that talent and physical ability are not enough without deliberate mental preparation and psychological resilience.
CJ Cansino is a 25-year-old PBA shooting guard currently playing for the Meralco Bolts. He previously captained both the UST Growling Tigers and UP Fighting Maroons in the UAAP and played for the Iloilo United Royals before entering the PBA.
Despite a knee injury, Cansino scored 14 points in 12 minutes in the do-or-die UAAP Season 84 finals, including the clutch three-pointer that tied the game and forced overtime — contributing directly to UP Fighting Maroons’ first championship in 36 years.
