Rumble in the Jungle (NCAA Finals)

The NCAA Basketball Finals will finally commence at the Araneta Coliseum tomorrow, in what has been a historic and looong 85th Season. This matchup, which could also be dubbed as the "Battle of the Saints", will feature the top seeded and 3-time defending champions, San Beda Red Lions versus the upstart and second seeded San Sebastian Golden Stags. On the sidelines, Red Lion coach Frankie Lim is seeking to stretch his championship run to 3; while rookie coach Ato Agustin is seeking to translate his success on the basketball court through his mentorship of the Stags. Interestingly, this is also a grudge match of the pre-season Nike Summer League Finals, which the Red Lions handily won. 

This early I will go out on a limb and predict that, despite so many other possible factors, the result of this series will depend on the gimpy knees of Red Lion Borgie Hermida. Let me explain.

Crime and Punishment

No, this has nothing to do with the robbery/shooting that occurred earlier today at Greenbelt 5. (or the Dostoyevsky novel, for that matter)

Was going to write about the ongoing NCAA Final 4, as I was in the Arena last Friday watching the matchup between San Beda and Letran. The game turned out to be better than I expected with the Red Lions, 3 time defending champions, barely pulling off a win against the Rey Guevarra-less Knights, and advancing to the NCAA Finals in the process. Little did I know that while this was ongoing, action of a different kind was taking place over at the Araneta Coliseum.

Manic Monday

A lot of new developments have occurred since my previous post last week. Among these are:

The Ateneo de Manila Blue Eagles getting back-to-back UAAP basketball championships. Congratulations are in order for Norman Black and the rest of the Blue Eagles for asserting their might throughout Season 72, and for pulling through in the Finals against the gritty UE Red Warriors. With his "Back-to-Black" win, Coach Norman also improves his coaching record in the Finals against rookie coaches. As a sidenote, all my predictions starting with the Final 4 were on the money. Let's see if it holds up as the NCAA is set to start its own Final 4 matchups in the coming days.

Also, as an aftermath of the Ateneo win, online sports columnist Tony Atayde of InboundPass.com launches a sarcastic tribute to the Blue Eagles and a tirade against Hardball host Bill Velasco. Consequently, his post gets edited and Atayde goes ballistic, this time against fellow InboundPass columnists Chris Soler and Mike Abasolo. Last I heard, he "retired" his column but not before giving a parting shot to those who he had differences with. (interestingly, all the guys he hit in his column are my fellow NCAA panelists over at ABS-CBN Sports) 

Congratulations are also in order for my good friend FireQuinito who won as best sports blog in the Philippine Blog Awards. Good job, Jae! I think this calls for a celebration over a few rounds of beer. Hehe.

And.. just in a couple of hours ago, news  confirming what people have openly speculated about since last week: Burger King trades Japeth Aguilar to Talk and Text, which in turn, releases him to Smart Gilas. With this new development I guess all parties are happy now: Japeth, Smart Gilas, SBP, PBA, Burger King and Barako Bull (which got a piece of the action acting as a conduit team). With that we can probably write finis to the Japeth Aguilar saga... for now.

Any Given Thursday

The title for this piece would have been straight to the point had the Ateneo Blue Eagles won Game 2 of the UAAP Finals last Sunday. It would have also been easier to make allusions to that movie starring Al Pacino and Jamie Foxx. Instead, the Blue Eagles snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and gave the UE Red Warriors a shot at the winner-take-all rubbermatch tomorrow. 

I can imagine both Norman Black and Lawrence Chongson trying to do their best Tony D'Amato impersonation before the game, in an effort to squeeze every last ounce of motivation from their players for one last time this season. Then again, so as not to confuse anyone, Coach Norman might be better off doing a Herman Boone, while Coach Lawrence can take a page from... Alfrancis Chua?=p