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    

Thoughts on Ondoy and a suggestion for UAAP fans

It's funny what a difference a few days can make in changing one's perspective. Just less than a week ago, a lot of focus was being given (this blog included) to the upcoming UAAP Finals match between the Ateneo Blue Eagles and the UE Red Warriors.


Then along came typhoon Ondoy, and with that, some lives were forever changed. I was fortunate enough to be living in an area that was not affected by flooding. The worst inconvenience I got was being incommunicado for 2 days (no internet connection/landline, plus a spotty cellphone signal). As i started to get these back, i was surprised shocked to see the devastation the rains had caused in Metro Manila.


In particular, a lot of friends and people i know had their homes and possessions submerged under water. Just yesterday, I was in the Pasig/Cainta area together with a few law classmates to help out a couple of people from our block who were victimized by the tragedy. Going around these areas gave me a sense of the extent of damage and the loss that the residents here suffered. I've reported on things like these before when i was still newscasting, but being there and having people you actually know as among those affected gave a totally different color to these events. 


It's things like these that make you realize what really matters. How things like a basketball game, while still followed with a passion, is just that. A game. 

Final Countdown (UAAP Finals)

So far, so good. Both my predictions for the UAAP Final 4 were on the money. It will be interesting to see if this holds up for the Finals series. So without further ado, here is my analysis for the upcoming Finals matchup between Ateneo and UE.

Most UAAP fans have installed Ateneo as the prohibitive favorite to defend the title they won last year. This belief is mostly based on the two wins that the Blue Eagles had over the Red Warriors this season. In both games, Ateneo's Rabeh Al-Hussaini imposed his will over the frontline of UE, averaging 28.5 points, and almost single-handedly gave his team the win. This exposed UE's lack of a true center, and Ateneo's superiority in that department. And while the rest of the starters for both teams might cancel each other out, it goes without saying that the boys from Loyola have the deeper bench. In addition, they also have more "name" players that are familiar even to the casual basketball fan. Indeed, a team that has a five of AlHussaini-Baclao-Buenafe-Salamat-Reyes has more ring to it than one which has Llagas-Espiritu-Acuna-Lee-Lingganay.

Looking at the numbers, I am almost tempted to join the bandwagon, and declare the Blue Eagles as champions even before the first shots have been fired. But something in my gut makes me feel that the Red Warriors have a decent shot at dethroning the Season 71 title-holders.

UAAP Final Four

Since everyone's been posting their detailed analysis on the upcoming UAAP Final Four matchups, i'll just keep mine simple, and stick with the predictions.

Matchup #1

The UAAP kicks off its Final Four tomorrow with the second seed, FEU Tamaraws going up against the third ranked UE Red Warriors.

With the latest twist in the Andy Barroca controversy pointing in this direction I would have to give the series to UE. Prior to this I would've favored FEU, but as it is, they are now a house divided.  

Prediction: UE

Matchup # 2

On Sunday the top seeded ADMU Blue Eagles tangle with the fourth seeded UST Growling Tigers.

For the Growling Tigers to beat Ateneo, their trio composed of league MVP Dylan Ababou, Khasim Mirza and rookie Jeric Teng have to score 60+ pts, limit the entire Blue Eagle Squad to less than that, and do it for 2 consecutive games.

Not going to happen. 

Prediction: ADMU

Up next: UAAP Finals and NCAA Final Four predictions (as soon as the pairings become clear)