Masarap Nga Maging Atenista Ngayon (Pero Next Year Asa na Kayo)

• Congratulations to the Ateneo Blue Eagles for winning back-to-back UAAP Men's Basketball Championship as they defeated the UE Red Warrios 71-58 last Thursday.
• I think Lawrence Chongson lost the coaching battle. Norman Black was able to adjust to UE's zone defense and he was well prepared for UE's offense. I'm also wondering why Lawrence did not use the same rotation patterns he used in Game 2. As they say, if ain't broke, don't fix it. Who the hell is Flores? Where's Tagarda? Why is he leaving his starters for so long on the court? He already knew that minutes played by his starters was big issue in Game 1 and he did good in adjusting in Game 2. Then he lets Elmer play N minutes again just like in Game 1. Why is that? He wasn't able to trust his bench much in the finals because he did a poor job developing his bench in the eliminations. I know it's frustrating to see your bench players give up the lead but you need to expose them for them to get better. It's what we call investment in your bench players. Also, I think UE played one-on-one too much and it resulted to them taking difficult contested shots. I know I'm sounding like a broken record calling out coaches on doing a better job in getting their star players easier looks but it works. Plus, it actually gives you a better shot at winning a championship. UE (don't blame only the coach on this one, blame the players too) should have done a better job not to settle for bad shots. Jai Reyes hardly takes a bad shot in the game. He might take a contested shot once in a while but he'll only take the shot if he knows that he has enough daylight to knock down the shot. On the other hand, Val was taking shots off the dribble with a defender closely guarding him. A simple pick-and-roll might have done the trick. Val doesn't need much space to convert on a shot but he still needs some space. I don't care if you Kobe Bryant or Val Acuna or Ferdinand, you will miss a shot most of the time if you've got a defender on your face. I'll have to agree with Norman Black that UE has system. It's just the his system lets his players create their own shot. I don't mind having Paul Lee on a isolation most of the time but Elmer and Val aren't really as good as Paul in creating their own shot. Maybe I few isolation plays for those guys is alright but you can already count their shots as automatic if they're open. I liked how they set up Elmer for open jump shot in their 1st possession in game 2. So why not call the same play or something similar to that play instead of dribbling for 23 seconds and taking bad shot?
• This is a well deserved Finals MVP for Rabeh. He's the main reason why ADMU has been a contender in the last 2 years. I know I said Eric was the ADMU's season MVP but I said that for his consistency on both ends of the floor and his focus on the game but that all disappeared in the finals. I think Ateneo would have won lesser games if Rabeh was gone compared to when Eric leaves. Not like most people, I wasn't really worried about Ateneo if Eric wouldn't show up again because the Eagles have proven that they can win w/o Eric when they won game 1. Their real barometer is Rabeh. He was distracted a little bit in game 2 and it cost them a sweep. Together with Nonoy, they are Ateneo's pillar of strength down low.
• Let me give some love to the other guys. Basketball is a team game and you can't win only one player. Jainamite was a key part in Ateneo's 2nd straigth championship. I know I hate the guy but he can really light it up if you give him an easy look. He's been their floor leader as well. I was little bit worried about ADMU with Tiu's departure not because of Tiu's points or outside shooting but because of his leadership. DLSU looked very good to win it again in season 71 but they sorely missed the leadership brought by TY Tang and Cholo Villianueva. Fortunately for Ateneo, Jai stepped right in to lead this team on and off the court. Don't get me wrong, I still hate the guy. Let's not forget last year's Finals MVP, Nonoy. He's not going to get a lot of attention because he's not a great on offense but his defense is probably as important as Rabeh's offense. Salamat and Buenafe also showed up in time to win Ateneo's 2nd straight championship. Guys like Kirk and Bacon was also key to Norman's system because he needs guy who will do their roles w/o hurting their team's chances of winning. (Let's leave missing or making bad shots to Buenafe.)
  
• Sid Ventura picked the UE Red Warriors because it seemed the stars were aligned for them just like how it was for UST in 2006. Rookie Coach(Pido and Lawrence). Typhoon (Milenyo and Ondoy). 3rd seed beating a 2nd seed (UST beats UE and now UE beats FEU). Controversy within the 2nd seeded team(Custodio and Barroca). Ateneo being the no. 1 seed. It looked like he was right except for one thing, the composition of this 2009 team. In 2006, his best offensive player was a perimeter player(JC Intal). In 2006, his best big man was much known to score on offensive rebounds and open inside or outside looks (Doug Kramer). In 2006, he his PG was more of a slasher than a shooter (Macky Escalona). This year, Norman had low post threat offensively (Rabeh Al-Hussaini). He had defensive presence inside (Nonoy Baclao). He had a PG who could knock down open shots when his big man gets doubled team (Jai Reyes). In short, the 2009 ADMU Blue Eagles were more of a traditional half-court team. A team perfect for Norman Black's system.
  Black has always been blessed with talented players like Tenorio, Intal and Bugia in the past but it was only when he had Rabeh that he was able to lead this team to a championship.
• I believed ADMU's opponent was only themselves. If they play tough defense and execute Black's game plan like how they did most of the season, they will win it all and true enough they played like how they did all season long and won the crown. If UE was able to somehow get Ateneo to play out of character in game 3, they might have already ended their long championship drought (Has it been 24 or 23 years?).
  

UE Forces Rubber Match

• UE started with the five that gave them a 19-1 run last game. Elmer, Acuna, Lee, Reyes and Lingganay. All 5 guys were patrolling around the perimeter and Rabeh had his difficulties guarding the quicker Elmer Espiritu. It was a close game in the 1st quarter so you can't say that this lineup was able to destroy ADMU. It did however gave UE a scoring punch off the bench with Pari Llagas.
• Chongson finally trusted his bench in this game. I was little scared for UE since Coach Lawrence made his 1st substitution with only a minute left in the 1st quarter but he used his bench for more than a half of the second quarter. He played with a lineup of Reyes, Zamar, Tagarda, Duran and Llagas for around 6 minutes and it gave his starters a lot of rest. Tagarda and Duran looks like pretty solid role players as both guys provided a lot of energy. TJ Manotoc provided a great point about playing young big men like Duran. The worse thing those guys can do is give up a hard foul on Rabeh which isn't really a bad thing at all. Tagarda as Boom would put it is UE's energizer bunny. The guy was all over the court huslting. He did take an ill-advised jumper in the 2nd quarter but he got 2 straight offensive rebounds that was crucial in UE's run in the 2nd half. UE's bench was pivotal as they gave the starters a lot of rest while still keeping the scoreboard close.
• A lot more attention was paid to Jai and Rabeh but ADMU continued to do the right thing and moved that ball around against that zone defense (Did UE play zone defense the whole game? I never noticed them play man to man at all) and that paved the way for the other guys like Chua and Austria to get open looks. UE improved their defensive rotation in the 2nd half to lessen ADMU's open shots as they were making their run.
• ADMU played out of character in the 2nd half. Poor defense and jacking up shots early in the shot clock cost them the game. They lost their focus especially Rabeh. Pari was getting under the skin of the former MVP with his physical play. Rabeh tends to just stand around when he gets frustrated and that's not something Norman Black wants. I'm sure he's going to get an earful from Norman tonight. Even the usually composed Kirk Long got on the wrong side of Norman when he rushed to their front court and was charged an offensive foul. (He just entered the game when that play occurred and he was quickly replaced by Austria)
• Val Acuna disappeared in the 1st half. Nonoy scared the hell out of him with an amazing block in the 1st half. Coach Lawrence called him out for being too cautious and for not attacking Nonoy's defense and he responded well in the 2nd half. He was back torching the Eagles with 3 pointers and nifty moves in the 3rd quarter. This guy is so damn talented for his size. Too bad we won't see much from him as he will be graduating this year. (I'm not sure about this but Boom did say Val is a graduating player.) He'll have to cut down on his forced 3 pointers if he wants to end the heartbreak for UE this Thursday.
  
• Elmer Espiritu was on fire today. He was consistently checking if his feet was set behind the 3 point arc and firing long ranged bombs all game long. He was also knocking down tough fadeaway Js against the Ateneo big men and lets not forget his spectacular alley-opp play in the 4th quarter. This was the Elmer that UE needed. He needs to be factor not only defensively but also offensively if UE wants to win against the Eagles. The commentators were asking Coach Lawrence to give Elmer some rest all game long. He gave that to them and it worked wonders for the Red Warriors.
• I think I saw Joseph Yeo in that game. Ow, sorry. That was actually Raphy Reyes. He looks like a very good player. I think he'll still be around next year to help Paul Lee around. He's very athletic and energetic but he needs to be smarter on the court. A dependable jumper will also help I guess.
• Paul lee kept on barreling over everyone in the 1st quarter. He was actually able to fish 2 fouls from Kirk because of that but Jai also drew Paul's second foul because of that. Chongson used a nice simple play that gave Lee a new way to score. Llagas would the ball in the perimeter and would pass the ball to the cutting Lee. Llagas' jumper kept Rabeh honest on defense so it gives Lee more space to operate. ADMU was able to check the play a couple of times in the 2nd half so Chongson can't expect this play would still work come Thursday. Lee never stopped driving even though he was blocked a ton of times in this game. That's what we call focus. It was all business for the Mythical 5 member and he was well under control for most parts of the game. Chongson does need to utilize a couple more plays to free Wowwow-Lee to score. Don't expect Norman to fall for the same tricks in Game 3.
• Where the hell is Eric Salamat? 4 points? He was very aggressive when the game started but he vanished as the game went along. He's seems to be a happy go lucky guy and he has showed in the past that he's a very clutch player so it really makes me wonder why he's disappearing on the grandest stage of the UAAP. Is he just too friendly with Raphy? Maybe a little bromance among the two is keeping Eric's mind out of the ball game.
• WTH is with those hidden punches? I first saw it in the UST-DLSU game with Camus and Mendoza trading punches. The UAAP should do a better job at controlling this kind of behaviour. Monfort was caught with this but I also saw Rabeh do it as well. Llagas also got away with a similar move but no suspensions please for crying out loud.
• It will be difficult for UE to win because they were very hot from outside today especially their big men. I'm sure ADMU will make the right adjustments and will be able to check UE's offense. The Eagles' opponent is themselves. If they play the right way once again they are almost unbeatable. UE has better one-on-one players but ADMU has the better system and they still have Rabeh. Eric will be the key as he has the ability to destroy UE's zone defense to open things up for their shooters. The role players for ADMU should also knock down the open shots. So much attention will be given to their main men so it is up to them to punish UE. For UE, they have to be creative once again with their adjustments and force ADMU to play out of character once again.
• It's a good thing I'm not rooting for Ateneo anymore. Remember 2006? A 3rd seed coached by a rookie coach up against a no. 1 seeded Blue Eagles team? Seeing JC Intal, Doug Kramer, Macky Escalona and the gang unable to win the crown against an underdog UST team led by Jojo Duncil, Allan Evangelista and Jervy Cruz still kills me up to this day. You can only imagine how much pressure ADMU is under right now. It's going to be interesting to see how these Eagles led by Jainamite and Rabeh react.
  
• Great quote by Coach Lawrence as reported by Tiff, "Hindi pwede puro puso lang dapat may utak din!" or something like that.

ADMU Draws First Blood

• Ateneo Blue Eagles wins over the UE Red Warriors 78-71 in Game 1 of UAAP Finals
• Both teams with some minor tweaks in their starting lineups. Austria started over Kirk Long for ADMU. UE started with Paul Lee in the bench. Zamar and Reyes started in their backcourt while it was the usual trio of Acuna, Espiritu and Llagas up front. UE started out pretty alright for the 1st couple of minutes without Lee but he started out slow and needed some time to get into the flow of the game.
• Rabeh dominated Llagas at the start of the game. Pari was just standing while Rabeh showed his full arsenal of moves. It was all business for the big man as he remained focused all game long. Pari needs to get more physical with Rabeh. He needs to push the former UAAP MVP out of his comfort spots. Rabeh is just unstoppable if he gets the ball where he wants. There is no way that UE can defend him one on one. As good as Eric is this year, Rabeh's the main reason why ADMU is one win away from back-to-back championships.
• As expected, you won't see a game blown wide open in this series. UE was able to make 19-1 run in the 2nd quarter to grab the lead by halftime. Coach Lawrence made great adjustment when he switched to smaller unit (Espiritu, Acuna, Lee, Reyes, Lingganay) and played zone defense. Nonoy Baclao isn't really known for his low post moves as this was evident as he failed to score on the hot shot small forward, Acuna. Rabeh also struggled to score on the small unit as they sent multiple defenders whenever he would get the ball down low. Plus, a great shot blocker was awaiting for him. Acuna gave Nonoy, known as a great defender, a lot of headaches on the other end. His height and ability to shoot and to drive proved too much for the former Finals MVP.
• UE did a great job taking care of ball in the 2nd and 3rd quarter. Unfortunately their turnovers late in the game were probably to blame for their loss. ADMU, known for their great execution, showed their end game brilliance in this game. You never saw a sign of panic from these Eagles even when UE finally took the lead. Their experience was a key factor in this game. UE needs to pick their shots. I know they've got guys who can knock down a shot from anywhere but you can't beat this Eagle team only with talent.
• UE needs to work on their defense. First of all, Jai can only hit a shot when he's open. The guy can brag all he wants but even a guy like me will be enough to stop the guy. You just have to challenge his shot and there's no way that he can make a shot. (So Jai, stop loading your gun. You gun is a measly water gun.) Jai is getting open shot after open shot when he comes off the screen. UE bigs need to show to prevent an open shot and it's not like the screener is rolling hard towards the basket. I know they're in a zone but they need to be aware of where Jai is on the floor. The only thing he can do is shoot so why is it so hard to stop him? Additionally, UE needs to defend harder on the free throw area. Rabeh is getting open shots in FT area for too often. He's already unstoppable down low so you might at least stop him from the perimeter. UE should also consider putting a quicker guy on Rabeh and have him front the man mountain from Ateneo. UE needs to change their defense to try to limit Rabeh.
• The Red Warriors got a lot of help from Raphy Reyes. He was very active all game long and provided the Warriors the much needed spark. He scored a lot of crucial baskets and gave UE a lot of hustle plays. UE needs to get a lot of help from the other guys. Zamar, Raphy Rudy and their other bench guys need to be part of the game. They have to provide something positive in Game 2 if UE wants to equalize the series.
• A well deserved SMOY award for Nico Salva. All season long, he has been able to provide ADMU quality minutes. This guy can score with the best of them. He'll knock down open shots and won't take bad shots. He has also been able to ability to score one-on-one. In one play in the 2nd quarter, he was able to score on DPOY, Elmer Espiritu, by throwing a couple fakes on him.
• Paul Lee had a slow start as he came off the bench. ADMU also did a great job clogging the lane whenever Paul was on attack mode. Unfortunately for ADMU, you can only limit great players and not stop them completely. He was usual self (taking and making difficult shots) come 2nd quarter.
• UE's very lucky Eric Salamat didn't show up. He was averaging 1.2 points in the finals for his career and his 4 points today surely didn't help. INVESTIGATE HIM FOR GAME-FIXING! OR BETTER YET TAKE HIM OFF THE TEAM TO IMPROVE TEAM CHEMISTRY. Just like how FEU did it.

Count them out and they'll prove you wrong..

• UE books the final ticket to this year's UAAP finals with a very impressive 78-72 victory over this year's host, the FEU Tamaraws.
• A lot of people (including me) predicted an ADMU - FEU finals this year in the UAAP and I guess we all had good reasons to believe so. The Eagles are the defending champions and they only lost one starter and a couple of role players. (Chris Tiu, Mike Baldos, Yuri Escueta, Jobe who?) Then there's the ever dependable Norman Black who always finds a way to discipline his large-headed players to play basketball the right way. FEU did lose a lot of key players like Fernandez and Baracael but their talent and depth was undeniable. Andy Barroca made a lot of noise in the off-season with his stints with Oracle and Smart-Gilas and he was also joined by his teammates Ramos and Cawaling in Smart-Gilas. Guys like Cervantes, Sanga and Knuttel were also coming back to help FEU get a crown. Of course they were also able to recruit a couple of quality players in RR Garcia and Pipo Noundou. Unfortunately for FEU, you still had to play the games to win a championship
• UE has always been in the Final 4 in recent years but have yet to translate those F4 appearances to a UAAP crown. The past UE teams have crumbled under pressure from the time of coach Boyzie Zamar , James Yap and Ronald Tubid up to the time of coach Dindo Pumaren, Mark Borboran and Marcy Arellano. This year, no one was giving them shit and maybe that's how they like it. No pressure. No expectations. Just plain old basketball. As the game's commentators said UE was the hungrier team.
• UE was undeniably the dark horse of this season. The core of the team was coming off a successful PBL season under Lawrence Chongson and it ultimately lead to his hiring as UE's head coach when Dindo called it quits. This guy pressed the right button when he freed up the offense and allowed the players to just play . When you place your players in a free-wheeling system , you're going to give your players control of what the team is going to do on the floor. In order to be successful in this system , you need players who are smart and creative enough to make their own decisions on the floor. Chongson has one damn good one. Paul Lee. In a restricted system like FEU's, the coach is responsible for placing his players in a position where they can be great. Players like Carmelo Anthony, JR Cawaling and Reil Cervantes are great fits in this system as they need the ball in particular spots to be productive. The same can't be said with players like Derrick Rose, RR Garica and Barroca as what makes them good is their creativity and their ability to make the right decisions on their own. I'm not saying Capacio's a bad coach. In fact I like him for his emphasis on defense and his discipline but you have to adjust to the players you have. You can't treat every player the same way. You can't ask Yao Ming to come off screens and spot up for a 3 point shot. (Maybe you can, the big does have a soft touch.)You need a system that will utilize the talent of each of your players.
• The game started out fantastic. The two teams combined for only 4 TO's in the 1st half. The 2nd half was a different story as FEU stacked up their turnovers that eventually caused them the game. It was a game of runs like the ADMU-FEU game. Whenever FEU would build a double-digit lead, UE would respond with their own run and like the ADMU-FEU game, FEU couldn't execute at the end.
• Where did JR Cawaling go? This guy is so damn gifted but he finds a way to magically disappear. He was a beast in the first half. I was already rejoicing when their captain finally showed up. Little did I know, he was planning an escape plan. His aggressiveness was nowhere to be found in crunch time and he let his teammates down once again. Hey! Why isn't he off the team yet?!
• Noundou had a decent game but he took so many ill-advised jump shots. He was so successful driving down the lane and stopping for a close ranged shot in the 1st half and continuing that might have changed the result. I wonder why he settled for outside shots (even 3 point attempts), which he missed most of them, when Cervantes was being guarded by Paul Lee on the block. Credit him for playing his heart out despite the injury.
• When Cervantes did get the ball at the block against Lee, he couldn't take advantage of the situation 100% of the time. This guy needs to develop a better post game either facing up or backing down and stop taking turn around jump shots. His partner Aldrech Ramos also missed a couple of open shots which he normally converts. RR Garcia's poise went down the drain. His lack of experience was evident in the game. I also didn't see Sanga in the game. Wonder where he went. I think he joined JR on his early vacation. Game-fixing? Kick them out as well FEU!
• Espiritu was non-existent offensively but he did change a lot of shots and blocked a few ones as well. Llagas moves so well in the shaded area and his teammates are so good in giving him the ball at the right spots. Rudy Lingganay gave his team a big boost with 15 points and his poise in the end game. Acuna showed the complete arsenal in this game. He mixed it up with 3 point shots and amazing drives and totaled 17 points in the game. Lee? Nothing else should be said about this stud. This guy threw a couple of questionable shots in this game but he did make some them including a couple of difficult threes. He wasn't the leading scorer in this one but he was certainly their main man. This guy is genuinely happy when his teammates makes incredible plays off his dishes. This guy was even tapping the number 6 patch (James Martinez) on his jersey at the end of the game. Just goes to show how unselfish he is.
• Schools are now aiming to win it all in the year that they are hosting but yet another host school failing to win the crown. Bad omen for the next year's host? (DLSU)
• These guys needs to improve on their FTs. Paul Lee missed 2 FTs at crunch time when they had a 76-72 lead with less than 2 minutes remaining. This is unforgivable for the team's best player. Good thing for him it didn't come back to haunt them.