PARITY there exists in the collegiate basketball wars when three teams were deadlocked at first place with identical records at the end of the 14-game elimination round and the previous year’s finalists needed to knock each other out just to make it to the Final Four party.
That is exactly what has happened in the eight-school University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men’s basketball competitions this season as National University, De La Salle University and Far Eastern University each registered a 10-4 record to pace the team standings.
University of Santo Tomas (8-6) ousted five-time titlist Ateneo de Manila University (7-7), 82-74, to secure the fourth and final semifinal berth.
A sixth team would have been in the mix if only the University of the East was not unilaterally castrated by the league commissioner with a series of player suspensions meant to favor other teams.
Along the way, a couple of “firsts” were established in the Final Four era that began in 1994 – one year after the University of Santo Tomas Tigers swept the 14-game elimination round and was declared the champion outright.
This season marked the first time that the elimination-round leader had registered as many as four losses. In previous 19 years, the team that topped the elims either finished with a record of 11-3, 12-2, 13-1 or 14-0.
UE Red Warriors went a lily-white 14-0 in 2007 to advance directly into the best-of-three finals. However, the DLSU Green Archers swept the Red Warriors in the best-of-three titular series as Franz Pumaren got the better of younger brother Dindo in their coaching showdown.
Season 76 also marked the first time that two different schools posted a perfect 7-0 mark in either of the two elimination rounds – FEU (first round) and La Salle (second). Strangely, neither the Tamaraws nor the Green Archers (who went 7-0 in a round for the first time since 2002) got the No. 1 spot.
It was the NU Bulldogs who earned the first seed, going 4-3 and 6-1 in the two rounds, by virtue of a better point differential in the second tie-breaker among the three teams with 10-4 records.
How did NU automatically secure the No. 1 berth with a twice-to-beat advantage against the UST vs. ADMU winner in the Final Four? And why were DLSU and FEU relegated to a playoff (Saturday, September 21) for the No. 2 seed and other twice-to-beat bonus against the game’s loser (making it essentially a best-of-three affair)?
In applying the first tie-breaker in the quotient system, the three teams – NU (1-1 vs. DLSU and 1-1 vs. FEU), DLSU (1-1 vs. NU and 1-1 vs. FEU) and FEU (1-1 vs. NU and 1-1 vs. DLSU) – still remained deadlock at 2-2.
It was in the second tie-breaker – the point differential against each other – that NU emerged No. 1. The Bulldogs were plus two (+5 vs. DLSU, 63-56 and 55-57, and -3 vs. FEU (83-87, 59-58), the Green Archers were an even 0 (-5 vs. NU and +5 vs. FEU, 79-83 in overtime and 75-66), and the Tams minus two (+3 vs. NU and -5 vs. DLSU).
Bannered by two-time UAAP Most Valuable Player Bobby Ray Parks Jr. (18.3 ppg, 8.4 rpg, 3.8 apg), Cameroonian import Emmanuel Mbe (14.9 ppg, 11.2 rpg, 0.6 bpg) and Joshua Alolino (7.4 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 5.2 apg), NU reached the Final Four for the second consecutive year and is bidding for its second UAAP title in school history.
Not since 1954 when a future Olympian Narciso Bernardo was King Bulldog has NU captured the championship. De La Salle, behind sophomore swingman Jeron Teng (14.6 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 2.6 apg, (44-for-83) .530 FT pct.), Almond Vosotros (14.2 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 2.1 apg, 1.1 spg), Jason Perkins (12.7 ppg, 9.6 rpg, 1.7 apg), Arnold Van Opstal (9.3 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 0.9 bpg) and Norbert Torres (7.1 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 0.6 bpg), has yet to win the UAAP crown since 2007 but has qualified for the Final Four for the second year in a row.
Far Eastern University, the winningest team in UAAP men’s basketball history with 19 titles (one more than UST’s total), hopes to return to prominence since its “three-peat” feat from 2003-2005.
(The team lost, 2-0, to DLSU in the 2004 finals but was handed the championship trophy when the Green Archers were disqualified for fielding in ineligible players.)
The Tamaraws’ fortunes rest around the three-guard rotation of Terrence Romeo (22.2 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 3.9 apg, 1.6 spg), Ryan Roose (RR) Garcia (12.8 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 3.0 apg, 1.0 spg) and Michael Tolomia (9.4 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 3.6 apg) and frontliner Mark Belo (9.1 ppg, 7.6 rpg, 1.1 apg).
Romeo reportedly leads the UAAP MVP derby over Parks and the sole criterion for the award is the player’s statistical points.
The SP formula is (total points + total rebounds + total assists + total steals + total blocked shots X 2) minus total turnovers – penalty points (5 for every technical and/or unsportsmanlike foul) + bonus points (15 for each team victory) divided by the number of games played.
A player that is thrown out of a game or given a suspension is automatically disqualified from the race. What price, glory?
Romeo consciously jacked up his SPs against patsies Adamson University and Unibersidad ng Pilipinas in order to edge Parks and deny the Fil-American a third consecutive MVP hardware.
Against the Falcons on September 7, a 92-80 win by the Tams, Romeo established a league season-high 32 points and had eight rebounds and four assists. Four days later, the 2010 UAAP Rookie of the Year awardee reset his career high with 33 markers, along with nine rebounds and five assists, as FEU blasted winless UP, 87-69.
In contrast, Parks patiently labored within team play in NU’s final two assignments against powerhouses La Salle and Ateneo. He had a pedestrian line of 19 scores, five boards and three blocks in the Bulldogs’ 57-55 setback to the Green Archers on September 8 and notched 24 points, seven rebounds and a pair of steals in a 70-65 victory over the Blue Eagles three days later.
Romeo averaged a league-high 20.9 field goal attempts an outing on .375 shooting. Parks, on the other hand, hoisted 15.5 fielders each time out and hit at a .359 clip. Vice Ganda may not like this, but Parks is, hands down, a better choice than Romeo as this year’s UAAP MVP.
Did you know…
The UP Fighting Maroons have a 21-game losing streak dating back to last season. UP’s most recent win was against UE in the final game of the first round last year. Yesterday, the Maroons bowed to the UE Red Warriors, 73-76.
DLSU’s Jeron Teng shot .530 from the free throw line in the double-round elims. He made 14-of-20 in his last two games (8-of-13 vs NU and 6-of-7 vs UST) to reach the 50 percent mark for the first time this season.
At one point in the season, Teng was making only 20 percent of his freebies. In four high school years in the Tiong Lian League with Xavier School, Teng owned a .652 clip from the 15-foot line. Despite this, Teng (14.6 points per game) has led the Green Archers in scoring for the second straight year. In Teng’s rookie season last year, he had a .584 free throw shooting clip.