It's that time of year again. Nope, folks, I am not referring to the Jose Mari Chan season, which starts as early as September. I am talking about the Season 86 UAAP Men's Basketball Championship, now down to two protagonists, UP and DLSU, left standing after an interesting year of relatively balanced line-ups that produced some exciting and surprising results.

You might recall that I usually come up with a fearless forecast at the start of each season. But this year, I didn't. I even passed up the opportunity to buy a season ticket. Why? Well, truth to tell, I am not a masochist.

After frustratingly watching the Blue Eagles during their usual pre-UAAP string of warm-up summer tournaments, both here and abroad, scramble, stumble, fumble, and bumble in an interminable stretch of forget-about-it performances, I knew in my heart that even a big dose of Tab Baldwin coaching magic and a barrage of Hail Marys would not do the trick for the defending champions in Season 86.

But of course, as every true-blue Blue Eagles fanatic would do, with fingers crossed, I still hoped and prayed that a miracle would happen. So what happened? No miracles. The inaugural match-up between the Blue Eagles and the NU Bulldogs was a blast. Not for Ateneo, though.

The Bulldogs blasted Ateneo out of the water with a lopsided win, 77-64, matching Season 85's upset win by NU, 78-74 against the Eagles. However, the heartbeats of thousands of Loyola loyalists skipped faster with glee when Ateneo, in their second game, surprisingly eked out a 77-72 win over its arch-rival, the much-heralded pre-season favorite De La Salle, this year's team to beat alongside the UP Maroons.

The third game proved to be another bust as party pooper Adamson at the last second in overtime, sneakily threw a jab to the glass jaws of the sputtering on-again, off-again Eagles, 74-71.

The Eagles continued anew on their roller coaster ride by beating the dangerously reformatted UE Warriors, 76-69, in their next game. But again, in their fifth game, the Eagles' perennial underdog nemesis, FEU Tamaraws, broke the hearts of the true Blues with an overtime win, 66-61. A pair of streaks of sorts with contrasting outcomes commenced when Ateneo walloped so-so also-ran UST, 97-77, followed by another totally unexpected win over the formidable UP Fighting Maroons, 99-89, in overtime, first round-ending thriller.