I will deviate from my usual business topics to discuss and write an issue close to my heart, basketball.
Last season, the UP Fighting Maroons upset the highly favored Ateneo Blue Eagles after a cardiac three-game finals series that saw UP capture the title after more than 30 years, the last one in 1986 when Benjie Paras, Ronnie Magsanoc and Eric Altamirano donned the Maroons jersey. The three, who later on became successful professional players and coaches, were instrumental in giving Diliman a championship that will forever be remembered.
Fast forward to 2022, the Fighting Maroons under new head coach Goldwin Monteverde, who is highly touted in high school basketball, once again brought glory to UP after its former Coach Bo Perasol moved up as Program Director. What is evident is that UP, with its "nowhere to go but UP foundation spearheading," found the formula for a successful program. With its prominent alumni pitching in and helping, a management team that is able to get good players, and a tactical coach at the helm, the Maroons are once again leading the standings with eight wins and only one loss as I write this column.
UP is once again favored to take it all this year with NU and Ateneo not far behind. Ateneo's program has always been solid with a five-peat captured from 2008 to 2012 and recently a three-peat from 2017 to 2019 with UP stopping the onslaught this year. So far in recent times the Blue Eagles have had the most successful basketball program and are still in the hunt this season.
The surprise package of this tournament is the new giant slayers, the NU Bulldogs. Under Coach Jeff Napa and his system that is so hard to read, the Bulldogs, as of this writing, are running second to UP having beaten both Ateneo and UP including the De La Salle Green Archers. It is evident that Napa's system is working in only his second year. With no superstars, Napa has transformed NU into an efficient and well-oiled basketball team easily utilizing ten players who understand his system. These in my view are the top three teams who will contend for the crown.
The biggest disappointment which was dubbed as one of the early favorites is the De la Salle Green Archers. They are currently languishing at second to last in a tie with Adamson and just above UST.
La Salle's basketball program which was one of the strongest during the time of Coach now Congressman Franz Pumaren was the best at the time. Sadly it is no longer the same. After Coach Franz left, a brief albeit sporadic resurgence happened with La Salle capturing the crown in 2013 under Juno Sauler and 2016 under Aldin Ayo with powerhouse players Jeron Teng and Ben Mbala. What followed were a runner-up finish and two disastrous seasons where La Salle uncharacteristically missed the final four in succession. Season 84 gave a ray of hope under the current program after the Archers were less than a minute away from facing Ateneo in the finals but fate and lady luck frowned upon them in a game where the Archers were in full control but eventually collapsed in the face of a fierce UP comeback.
This season they are in danger of not making the final four. The last game with FEU albeit without their key players exposed La Salle's weakness in some stretches of the game particularly when it was on the line. A circus shot by Mark Nonoy and a useless charging foul by Joaqui Manuel encapsulated what the season-long problem is all about. Bad decision-making and no coherent plays down the stretch as opposed to the composure and plays executed by FEU even if it suffered a bad shooting night. The result is La Salle losing by four.
If we look at the numbers, La Salle out of sheer talent has the leading MVP contender in Deschon Winston, the number one assists guy in Evan Nelle, and the possible rookie of the year in Kevin Quiambao. It has a rebounding demon in Mike Philipps and perhaps one of the go-to sixth guys in Cyrus Austria. Looking at them in a context, you would think this should be a top-two team instead of a last-two one. I will discuss more of this in my next column.