Ateneo faces acid test
ATENEO’S championship worthiness will be retested again on Sunday when the Blue Eagles battle the Far Eastern University Tamaraws in the Final 4 series of the UAAP (University Athletic Association of the Philippines) Men’s Basketball Tournament at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.
Smarting from that loss to the La Salle Green Archers that snapped their 13game winning streak last week, the Eagles will also salvage some pride with a win over the Tamaraws in their Sunday encounter set to start at 4 p.m.
That setback to La Salle also denied Ateneo an outright Finals slot and the rare chance as well of completing a rare 14-0 sweep of the league’s two-round eliminations.
But Ateneo found solace to the fact that as the No. 1 team with their 13-1 record, the Eagles need only one win against the Tamaraws to clinch one of two coveted slots in the best-of-three championship showdown.
FEU, for finishing No. 4, faces the tall order of defeating Ateneo twice to advance to the Finals against the winner of the La Salle-Adamson semifinal series.
I wrote this before the Archer-Falcon clash on Saturday, with No. 2 La Salle advancing outright if it beats No. 3 Adamson. Like FEU, Adamson must also defeat La Salle twice to grab a Finals berth.
Based on records and performances, all indications strongly point to another title clash between archrivals Ateneo and La Salle.
It would be a monumental turnaround, as in the NBA having a new champion and not seeing the Golden State Warriors retain their crown, should either Ateneo or La Salle—or even both—not make it to the Finals.
While it is a virtual given that La Salle would defeat Adamson—Archer Ben Mbala is simply too hard to contain— Falcon coach Franz Pumaren is not one guy who’d just toss in the towel that easily.
Did Pumaren not coach La Salle to five UAAP titles, including four straight?
In the same breath, Ateneo might yet find the sailing rough against FEU. Isn’t it always the case to see teams fighting on almost equal footing when survival has become the only reason to live?
The suspense is killing me.
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(ERRATUM. No, Commissioner Chito Narvasa of the PBA [Philippine Basketball Association] is not a lawyer. His brother, Ogie, is the lawyer. My apologies.)