The die is cast. The main protagonists for the 87th UAAP Men’s Basketball Championship, as I had predicted at the start of the season, are the Green Archers and the Fighting Maroons. Unfortunately, my prediction regarding my other alma mater from Katipunan also came to fruition.

The Blue Eagles floundered from the very first flight, losing three times in succession to UP, UST and DLSU — which was unheard of for all of Tab Baldwin’s previous wards — until finally they had a breakthrough win against the Adamson Falcons. This win turned out to be a fluke as the Eagles went on to lose their next three games, again in succession, to FEU, UE — for the first time in a decade — and NU en route to their most humiliating finish ever under Tab Baldwin. Three consoling wins, however, in the latter part of the season came at the expense of consensus preseason Finals Four bet NU, streaking UE, and very surprisingly, the Final Four contender, UST.

In truth, I believed, so with thousands of Ateneo die-hards, the Eagles didn’t really have a ghost of a chance after losing the services of the last championship core of Ange Kuoame, Dave Ildefonso, BJ Andrada, Geo Chiu and Kay Balungay. Replacing them as the new main men were the unheralded 86th season second team composed of veterans Chris Koon and Josh Lazaro who, truth to tell, were so-so and inconsistent in previous campaigns. Great hopes were also pinned on other sophomore newbies who could step up like forward slasher Shawn Tuano, shooting guards Andrew Bongo and Kevin Gamber, and fleet-footed senior Ian Espinosa.

A missing critical piece in the lineup that haunted the Eagles all season was a dependable center not prone to fumbles, with a heart and an adroit inside shooter’s touch like Kouame. Instead, the team had to make do with lanky Kyle Ong and erratic Victor Balogun having to match up against the Archers’ Michael Philips and the Maroons’ Quentin Millora Brown. But the real expected headliners for the Eagles were freshmen blue chip recruits Kiefer Ravena-like Jared Bahay and bull strong Enrico Villanueva-like Kevin Porter. But two outstanding players alone don’t make a championship team.

Aside from the weak center position, I believe, on paper, the rest of the team was a reasonably promising five but alas, somehow, the magic of Tab didn’t work out this year. Perhaps it was the unrelenting pressure from the alumni that can be unforgiving, or the jitters of an untested team playing under the bright lights of the Arena were too much to handle, or the competition from the other teams was simply too formidable for this young team to overcome.

The vaunted recruitment magic of Ateneo fueled by the generous support of some blue chip alumni didn’t translate to top notch recruits for the past two seasons which, as basketball pundits have observed, went heavily the way of the Maroons and the Archers. Frustrated Eagles alumni could only ponder and speculate as to what happened. Could it be that the largesse had slowed down because of a longstanding generous alumnus’ passing, or is there any truth to the rumors that Tab’s player disciplinarian management style had alienated some who obviously felt that it was greener or marooner or kinder elsewhere than at Ateneo.

I wonder what the next season will be like for the Eagles because to date, there has been no credible talk of some new find or a shake-up in the coaching staff. There will likely be no Blue Eagles soaring high I am afraid in season 88.

A missing critical piece in the lineup that haunted the Eagles all season was a dependable center not prone to fumbles, with a heart and an adroit inside shooter’s touch like Kouame.

As apparent as Ateneo’s fall, the upcoming showdown between the Archers and the Maroons was an obvious end game scenario from the get-go. It will be a great championship series and will be anybody’s ballgame. The Maroons have high flying slasher Francis Lopez. At point, UP has the gutsy, steady ball handler, playmaker, shooting guard JD Cagulangan backed up by equally dependable new star Harold Alarcon. At center, the matchup between UP’s QMB and DLSU’s Philips will surely be a sight to behold.

Although the lineups are fairly even, I believe the edge will go to the Archers because of the almost perfect, all-around playing skills of Gilas-honed MVP Kevin Quiambao. In every game, he orchestrates the Archers with his fancy, no look passes, high altitude rebounding leaps, and almost perfect shooting prowess from the 3-point area. His rah-rah spirit has an undeniable impact on the way the rest of the Archers play. The Maroons will have to somehow find an antidote to KQ. Unfortunately for now my favorite alma mater, I don’t see how this will be possible. It will be the Archers again for season 87 and perhaps even for season 88 if KQ could be prevailed to stay on.

Until next week… OBF!

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