Is UAAP losing its value for sportsmanship?

TRACKING down the developments in Season 76 of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men’s basketball tournament has driven me crazy with the on-court transgressions by the players and the off-court antics by the league officials.

This makes me wonder and my fertile mind wander if this year’s collegiate competitions were being stage-managed to favor a burgis school that was looking to win at all cost at the expense of a pang-masa institution that was striving hard to reach the upper echelon of the eight-team standings early in the season.

In the end, the pang-masa institution was castrated with a series of player suspensions that hamstrung its campaign during the second round.

On the other hand, the burgis school, despite several rulings by the UAAP Board intended to prop up their ambitious campaign, mercifully fell by the wayside as well.

Other issues and decisions made during the season that continue to puzzle me include the following:  UAAP commissioner Chito Loyzaga slapped a two-game suspension on the University of the East recruit Charles Mammie during the second round for a pair of unsportsmanlike fouls during a game. One was called by the referees.

The other was not called during the game and Loyzaga took it upon himself to issue a second UF off the court. Granting that Loyzaga is right, why penalize only Mammie? Did not the “blind” referees also deserve to be punished?

Acting on a UE appeal, the UAAP Board reconsidered to reduce the two-game suspension of Mammie – read this – ONE hour before UE was to clash with a De La Salle squad that was climbing up the standings following its defeat of its arch nemesis.

That 11th-hour ruling is one for the books, maliciously meant to unnerve the Green Archers’ game strategy. Favor was not done for UE but rather a plot to pull down La Salle so that another school could be positioned to catch up with playoff contenders with nearly identical records.

Ateneo bench maestro Bo Perasol was suspended for a game after a post-game verbal clash with a La Salle fan. However, in the Blue Eagles’ next assignment against UE, Perasol stubbornly joined his team and, while not X-ing and O-ing on the ADMU bench, was caught inside the Mall of Asia Arena during the game.

The policy on this matter is clear: Game forfeiture by the team is the punishment if a suspended coach is seen within the vicinity of the playing area. But the honorable and know-it-all men and women that comprised the UAAP Board sought to put it into a vote (?) and decided to slap another one-game suspension against Perasol, contending that the first suspension was not properly served. What a stupid reason.

If not, what then is the policy for? The Board might just as well put into a vote  EVERY TIME a complaint or appeal (decisions unilaterally made by the commissioner) is filed by an aggrieved team before them.

How divided is the UAAP Board? Any time an issue is brought to them, horse-trading of votes often takes place. If one school had previously voted against another’s interest, you can be sure that the latter would retaliate by voting adversely in a subsequent issue that would involve the former.

That tit-for-tat stance happened this season. One board rep foolishly even questioned the credentials of the board reps of another school while the Board was meeting on another matter.

It shows the lack of respect and maturity by some high and mighty board representatives. Add this: When a rookie UP lady swimmer – out of UST high school – was granted a TRO by a court that enabled her to suit up this season for the Fighting Maroons varsity despite the league’s inhuman two-year residency rule, the UAAP Board claimed it would respect the court ruling but, in a subsequent hypocritical stance, pressured other schools to boycott the events that the UP swimmer participated in.

The Board said that it had no part in the sinister plot, as if to imply that the ordinary sports fan is a fool that does not know any better.

There is a coaches’ box on the hard court. How come there is no concerted effort to warn or penalize the bench strategists that walk past the box or even race to midcourt during game action? Strictness leads to discipline.

Trash-talking or taunting deserves some form of penalty. A University of Santo Tomas player pulls out his tongue in front of an opposing player that he has just scored against.

A warning should be imposed on such taunting that could lead to tempers flaring at any moment. Again, strictness on this matter leads to discipline.

But that’s small matter when you consider a Far Eastern University player who shamelessly puts his sweat (if not saliva) on his palm then touches the hand of a De La Salle player that is about to take a free throw with his sweaty (or saliva-filled) dirty hand in a silly attempt to unnerve him.

And the referee simply stands still with his hands stuck to his waist with no warning whatsoever. This is totally unacceptable behavior, unsportsmanlike and despicable. Bastos.

Worse, the disgusting act was committed by this year’s UAAP Most Valuable Player in the final minutes of an important playoff game at that.

Jess Tanchanco, the UE marketing director and Red Warriors team manager, is right. The UAAP is starting to lose the values of sportsmanship and camaraderie and developing “hatred” among the member schools.

UE is the host for Season 77 (2014). Will things change in a year’s time? For a start, the “win-at-all-cost” philosophy must go. And sportsmanship must reign at all times.

In the end, all are winners in the eyes of the hard-hat basketball fan like you and me. More juicy UAAP stories in my next column on Thursday.