“The best thing that ever happened in UAAP basketball.”
Nothing is more fitting in describing Season 77 in the flagship sport of the country’s most popular collegiate league. Far Eastern’s coach Nash Racela could not describe it much better than the above-quoted byte. For the first time in the Final Four Era, neither La Salle nor Ateneo is in the Finals of men’s basketball.
Most importantly, for the first time in the Final Four Era, there are no big names to market. If this was Season 76, we could have raved over the rivalry of Ray-Ray Parks and Terrence Romeo. It could have been more of a display of individual talent than team play. Razzle dazzle over fundamentals.
What will unfold on Saturday is basketball at its purest.
National University (NU) is the best defensive team in the UAAP today, limiting their foes to a little less than 60 points a game, punctuated by foreign student Alfred Aroga’s block on MVP Kiefer Ravena’s drive in the last second of Wednesday’s do-or-die semis match. This school has also dealt the lowest score for an opposing team in the history of modern UAAP basketball, limiting Adamson to only 25 points in all four quarters in their first round matchup last July.
NU has come a long, long way in reaching this far. The last time the UAAP founding school made it to the Finals was in 1970 and they were waylaid by a dominant University of the East team which was on its way to win its sixth consecutive championship—an unmatched feat to this day.
And, the last time NU hoisted the championship trophy in men’s basketball was way back in 1954, when it was led by a soon-to-be-legend in Ciso Bernado. That was a time when there was no three-point shot in basketball and when the NBA was then composed of eight teams and was championed by the defunct Syracuse Nationals. That year was also historic for Philippine basketball, when the men’s national team nabbed the bronze medal in the FIBA World Cup—the best finish of an Asian country in World Cup history.
NU’s championship run in the era of Facebook, touchscreen cellphones, and video communication is a full sixty years in the making. The school, which most of us could not locate, has suffered mediocrity for the past six decades, playing a filler’s role not only in men’s basketball, but in the overall championship race of the UAAP. Even if they had the likes of Danny Ildefonso, Lordy Tugade, and Parks, the school could not make it to the pantheon of greatness where their late elder Bernardo resides. Yesterday, however, it took a ragtag, no-star team of Aroga, Gelo Alolino, Glenn Khobuntin, Troy Rosario, and a bunch of hard-nosed role players to tow their team to where they deserve to be.
On the other hand, Far Eastern University (FEU), while being the winningest team in UAAP men’s basketball, has suffered the harshest of defeats and even harsher criticisms in recent history that, making spectators think that they are instead the most disappointing UAAP team.
The Tamaraws last visited the Finals in 2011 and 2010, when they were blanked by the hulking Ateneo de Manila.
In 2012 and 2013, the team suffered heartbreak after heartbreak that even the offensive prowess of a Romeo could not save the much-maligned team.
Choker was the word to describe the Tamaraws when they squandered a 7-0 start in Season 76 only to be relegated in third place at the end of the season.
The Tamaraws were much more maligned at the start of Season 77 when Romeo left, leaving the team at the inexperienced hands of Mike Tolomia and erstwhile role player Mac Belo. Little did we all know that Belo would transform into a meek beast, destroying the defense of Jeron Teng and Jason Perkins in the Final Four to average 27 points in the semis. Little did we also know that Tolomia is a true playmaker, not the giddy Romeo-prototype do-it-all ballhog of the past.
Under the leadership of the modern and no-nonsense coaching of Nash Racela, the more mature, more organized Tamaraws will attempt to win their first post-Arwind Santos trophy.
It is cliché that this year’s Finals is anybody’s ball game. How can one predict the outcome of a duel between two starless and very hungry squads?
This is no longer a battle of marketability, of the Ravenas, the Tengs, the Tius, and the Atkinses. This is no longer a battle of whose English diction sounds better. This is no longer a battle of which elite faction is triumphant.
This is a battle of tactics, plays, shooting, and defense. Welcome to the Dream Finals.
Finally, basketball happens in the UAAP.
(Shoutout to Mr. Randy Gonzales for helping me in correcting some historical information in this column. Thank you, sir.)
NU vs ADMU Photo Gallery | FEU vs DLSU Photo Gallery
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