A lot has been said about De La Salle’s failure to make it to the Final Four e in the ongoing UAAP basketball wars.
Well, La Salle just can’t qualify in the tight Final Four playoffs all the time. And that has been a bitter pill to swallow for the entire Green Archers community considering that for the last 15 years, the green-and-white team has always been in the Final Four and has figured in numerous championship runs.
Anyway, with La Salle already out of the running, the subject of interests are on the four remaining survivors after 14 elimination round games—the reigning UAAP champion Ateneo, Far Eastern University, University of the East and the University of Santo Tomas.
Among the four though, admittedly, Ateneo and FEU are the prohibitive favorites to clash in the UAAP Finals—that is—granted the Blue Eagles and the Tamaraws show the exit door to their respective opponents.
Ateneo, being the no. 1 seeded team following its 74-73 win yesterday (September 12) against FEU, only needs to win once against fourth-seeded Santo Tomas.
On the other hand, FEU, which settled for the second seed, only needs to beat the third-ranked UE squad once to return to the UAAP Finals for the first time since 2005.
Between the top two seeded teams, I guess Ateneo has the biggest advantage to make the quick leap to the Finals.
For one, the 6’8” Ateneo center Rabeh Al-Hussaini is expected to tower over his smaller Santo Tomas defenders, who no longer has the dependable Jervy Cruz to man the slot. Cruz already finished his playing years last season and will play for Rain or Shine in the PBA as a rookie late this year.
Then, the Blue Eagles, who hold a 2-0 edge over the Growling Tigers this season in their head-to-head match up, have a string of shooters capable of delivering the biggest blows any given time.
I’m talking about Eric Salamat, Ryan Buenafe and veteran playmaker Jai Reyes, along with off-the-bench players like Kirk Long and even sophomore Nico Salva. Helping out Al-Hussaini in the shaded lane is 6’4” rebounding monster Nonoy Baclao.
Meantime, FEU, though its core had been playing together since three years ago, might still have to go through the eye of the needle so to speak, against UE.
UE prevailed by 15 points during their second encounter this season. The Red Warriors are also bringing along to the Final Four the momentum of their five-game winning streak. And that makes them more dangerous.
FEU has a slew of veterans to lean on in the Final Four—Mark Barroca, Aldriche Ramos and JR Cawaling—all members of the Smart-Gilas RP youth team. While adding more threat on defense and offense are Reil Cervantes, Paul Sanga and guards Jenz Knuttel and rookie RR Garcia who has been a revelation thus far.
Cameroon forward Pipo Noundou, who has been a force in the middle, might be back in time for the Final Four. He got his ankle sprained two weeks ago.
After all has been said and done, my gut feeling is that Ateneo and FEU will eventually end up squaring off for the 2009 UAAP championship.
Sorry for the UE and Santo Tomas fans, but looking at the way these top two teams have been playing, it just goes to show that Ateneo and FEU are playing with far more consistency than the rest this season.
So now, take your pick—Ateneo or FEU—for the UAAP title?