Note: This is an old post from my Multiply site last July 19, 2009.
The third Ateneo game in UAAP Season 72 has just finished awhile ago and that ends the Ateneo Blue Eagles' version of their Hell Week as they battled arguably the top three contenders of the UAAP Men's Basketball this year. From last Sunday (July 12) up to this Sunday (July 19), Ateneo faced pre-season favorite FEU, always-a-playoff-contender UE and undefeated UST. When the dust settled, we have an idea of how the UAAP Season 72 would turn to be.
As the defenders of the crown, Team Ateneo showed that they were for real by defeating all of their competitive opponents. They started by defeating the season's hosts - the FEU Tamaraws. Ateneo led the game all the way with FEU having some scary spurts. I am skeptical into thinking that this could be the preview of what might happen in this year's Finals because of several reasons. Mark Barroca, despite showing flashes of brilliance, was not his dominating self. He just scored twelve points and if you are going to compare that to his last year's version, there is barely a change in the stat sheet for a guy who was praised as the premiere point guard of the league. I think there was a bit of overconfidence on his part. I am going to credit the Ateneo defense but Mark Barroca did not impose himself that much on that game. I expect him to attack better in the next encounter.
FEU's rookies are rookies. RR Garcia was remarked as a favorite to grab this year's Rookie of the Year. Watch that game and you will see that he is shooting blanks. That is acceptable. I have seen very much hyped Ateneo rookies over the years who had worse performances. RR actually broke out as early as his second game this season so expect this guy to be the deadly shooter that could break the Ateneans' hearts as the season progresses. Noundou showed promise by having nice post-up defense against Rabeh and scoring nine points. But he still had flaws. After all, he is a rookie. Both of these were highly touted rookies but they just provided as of the glimpse of their potential. FEU is a scary team to watch.
Nevertheless, this was Ateneo's game to take. Defense and bench scoring were the key factors. Baclao was in his swatter and shot-altering form as intimidated FEU scorers found it hard to penetrate inside. Kirk Long, amidst having an offensive concern, was a steady lockdown defender. Buenafe, Salva and Monfort combined for 27 points off the bench.
I maybe scared (to some degree) of the FEU Tamaraws but the Blue Eagles were not in their peak form either. Al Hussaini (6/16), Reyes (3/12) and Salamat (2/9) were inefficient scorers. Nonoy Baclao could have contributed with a low post score or two. Even the bench scoring did not surprise me. Ryan Buenafe was last year's most-coveted rookie for no reason. Salva was a scoring machine back in high school. As for Monfort, his scoring appeared like an "Alston game" then but after watching the game awhile ago, he has established himself as an offensive option off the bench. If we are expecting a lot from highly touted rookies, we should expect more from sophomores.
Next up: The University of the East Red Warriors. This red machine squad previously massacred the La Salle Green Archers and could upset the Blue Eagles with their free wheeling offense. I actually missed the first half of this game because I had to travel from Fort Bonifacio to Greenbelt in Makati. I watched it at the National Sports Grill when UE led by two at the halftime. It did not elicit any reaction from me but had I known that UE mounted an enormous 17 point lead at some point in the first half, I would have been more excited.
The Warriors gave the Katipunan-based squad a scare because of the red-hot shooting of Val Acuna. They bombed threes but as I expected from Norman Black's squad, they will inch closer by being composed. This has always been one of the main characteristics of Ateneo in the past years. When their opponents have a run, the Blue Eagles settle down. No need to hurry. Of course, there were painful instances when I had to endure them losing pivotal games to UST and DLSU before because Team Ateneo could not sustain their opponents' momentum. But, controlling the situation and playing as you are supposed to do in a normal ball game is one step to being successful. And they did in this game. Slowly but surely, they tied the game and delivered the finishing blow. From a seventeen point deficit to a fifteen point win.
What happened to UE's hot shooting? A low 29.41% field goal percentage tells you the story. The Law of Averages caught up with them and since they have already fallen in love with their shots, they threw brick after brick as their confidence level fell. Same old story: it was defense. This is the very same thing that brought Ateneo back to glory last year. That and the same ingredient to Season 71's success which is Rabeh's inside scoring. It was that simple: defend and dish the ball to your big man. How old school. Simple yet effective.
As for the Red Warriors? Their free-wheeling offense was like SSOL gone crazy. D'Antoni's Suns never defeated the fundamentally sound San Antonio Spurs then; what makes you think that an SSOL gone mad team would beat the defensive juggernaut Blue Eagle team?
The Hell Week officially ended today. It was against the 2-0 UST Growling Tigers. Pido Jarencio's squad is rookie-laden and we must remember that he has not yet beaten Ateneo ever since he upset them last 2006. I was saying to myself that the Blue Eagles might be fatigued after facing the possible two best teams they could battle with. UST had an easier route of Adamson and NU so upset is a possibility. But Ateneo still remains as the clear favorite to win this game.
The Blue Eagles just showed why they have the bulls-eye at their backs. They slaughtered the Growling Tigers with no remorse. No matter how Pido fueled up his team, the Hail Mary Squad just continued to claw at the helpless Tigers by mounting twenty point leads. Without a Jervy Cruz holding the fort and providing the easy two, UST had few offensive options. For the third straight game, Kirk Long had a sterling performance as a defender. Ababou scored on 6 out of 19 attempts.
Final score was 93-77. Do not let it fool you into thinking that Ateneo did not play defense. The game was mostly fast-paced and the Growling Tigers were with their starting lineup until the last minute. The commentators actually stopped talking about the game itself halfway into the fourth. Pido was just relentlessly instilling the never-say-die attitude to his team.
But the reason was not purely on defense. It was more on Eman Monfort's breakout performance. He shot the lights out with six rainbow shots. Ryan Buenafe (14), Eric Salamat (14), and Al-Hussaini (13) all contributed on the offensive end. This year's version is just loaded on all positions. We did not even need Jainamite to explode.
Ateneo's Hell Week was more of a Heaven Week for Ateneo hoops fans. We were treated to a strong defensive team which has a reliable offense that has a high ceiling. The Eagles soared but I think we are just starting. I just hope that the team has this same confidence and composure when we are battling at the games that matter.
On a side note, it was a Jessica Mendoza week for me as well. I got a dose of seeing the past ACET topnotcher thrice in TV as she delivered dead-on reports. Beauty and brains, indeed. She was able to catch the most significant messages by Norman Black awhile ago from 'starting slow in the previous games' to 'not letting up in the final quarter'. Great job so far.
As for commentators, let me just say that I could not resist the temptation to write Boom Gonzales' quotable quotes from the Adamson-UP game last Saturday. I just do not like the way he creates his own basketball language. He is creative in a way but he has to deliver more credibility before fans would accept his own lingo. Here they are: (FYI, this just came on the last three minutes of that ball game)
renew his relationship with the free throw line - shoot a free throwThe third Ateneo game in UAAP Season 72 has just finished awhile ago and that ends the Ateneo Blue Eagles' version of their Hell Week as they battled arguably the top three contenders of the UAAP Men's Basketball this year. From last Sunday (July 12) up to this Sunday (July 19), Ateneo faced pre-season favorite FEU, always-a-playoff-contender UE and undefeated UST. When the dust settled, we have an idea of how the UAAP Season 72 would turn to be.
As the defenders of the crown, Team Ateneo showed that they were for real by defeating all of their competitive opponents. They started by defeating the season's hosts - the FEU Tamaraws. Ateneo led the game all the way with FEU having some scary spurts. I am skeptical into thinking that this could be the preview of what might happen in this year's Finals because of several reasons. Mark Barroca, despite showing flashes of brilliance, was not his dominating self. He just scored twelve points and if you are going to compare that to his last year's version, there is barely a change in the stat sheet for a guy who was praised as the premiere point guard of the league. I think there was a bit of overconfidence on his part. I am going to credit the Ateneo defense but Mark Barroca did not impose himself that much on that game. I expect him to attack better in the next encounter.
FEU's rookies are rookies. RR Garcia was remarked as a favorite to grab this year's Rookie of the Year. Watch that game and you will see that he is shooting blanks. That is acceptable. I have seen very much hyped Ateneo rookies over the years who had worse performances. RR actually broke out as early as his second game this season so expect this guy to be the deadly shooter that could break the Ateneans' hearts as the season progresses. Noundou showed promise by having nice post-up defense against Rabeh and scoring nine points. But he still had flaws. After all, he is a rookie. Both of these were highly touted rookies but they just provided as of the glimpse of their potential. FEU is a scary team to watch.
Nevertheless, this was Ateneo's game to take. Defense and bench scoring were the key factors. Baclao was in his swatter and shot-altering form as intimidated FEU scorers found it hard to penetrate inside. Kirk Long, amidst having an offensive concern, was a steady lockdown defender. Buenafe, Salva and Monfort combined for 27 points off the bench.
I maybe scared (to some degree) of the FEU Tamaraws but the Blue Eagles were not in their peak form either. Al Hussaini (6/16), Reyes (3/12) and Salamat (2/9) were inefficient scorers. Nonoy Baclao could have contributed with a low post score or two. Even the bench scoring did not surprise me. Ryan Buenafe was last year's most-coveted rookie for no reason. Salva was a scoring machine back in high school. As for Monfort, his scoring appeared like an "Alston game" then but after watching the game awhile ago, he has established himself as an offensive option off the bench. If we are expecting a lot from highly touted rookies, we should expect more from sophomores.
Next up: The University of the East Red Warriors. This red machine squad previously massacred the La Salle Green Archers and could upset the Blue Eagles with their free wheeling offense. I actually missed the first half of this game because I had to travel from Fort Bonifacio to Greenbelt in Makati. I watched it at the National Sports Grill when UE led by two at the halftime. It did not elicit any reaction from me but had I known that UE mounted an enormous 17 point lead at some point in the first half, I would have been more excited.
The Warriors gave the Katipunan-based squad a scare because of the red-hot shooting of Val Acuna. They bombed threes but as I expected from Norman Black's squad, they will inch closer by being composed. This has always been one of the main characteristics of Ateneo in the past years. When their opponents have a run, the Blue Eagles settle down. No need to hurry. Of course, there were painful instances when I had to endure them losing pivotal games to UST and DLSU before because Team Ateneo could not sustain their opponents' momentum. But, controlling the situation and playing as you are supposed to do in a normal ball game is one step to being successful. And they did in this game. Slowly but surely, they tied the game and delivered the finishing blow. From a seventeen point deficit to a fifteen point win.
What happened to UE's hot shooting? A low 29.41% field goal percentage tells you the story. The Law of Averages caught up with them and since they have already fallen in love with their shots, they threw brick after brick as their confidence level fell. Same old story: it was defense. This is the very same thing that brought Ateneo back to glory last year. That and the same ingredient to Season 71's success which is Rabeh's inside scoring. It was that simple: defend and dish the ball to your big man. How old school. Simple yet effective.
As for the Red Warriors? Their free-wheeling offense was like SSOL gone crazy. D'Antoni's Suns never defeated the fundamentally sound San Antonio Spurs then; what makes you think that an SSOL gone mad team would beat the defensive juggernaut Blue Eagle team?
The Hell Week officially ended today. It was against the 2-0 UST Growling Tigers. Pido Jarencio's squad is rookie-laden and we must remember that he has not yet beaten Ateneo ever since he upset them last 2006. I was saying to myself that the Blue Eagles might be fatigued after facing the possible two best teams they could battle with. UST had an easier route of Adamson and NU so upset is a possibility. But Ateneo still remains as the clear favorite to win this game.
The Blue Eagles just showed why they have the bulls-eye at their backs. They slaughtered the Growling Tigers with no remorse. No matter how Pido fueled up his team, the Hail Mary Squad just continued to claw at the helpless Tigers by mounting twenty point leads. Without a Jervy Cruz holding the fort and providing the easy two, UST had few offensive options. For the third straight game, Kirk Long had a sterling performance as a defender. Ababou scored on 6 out of 19 attempts.
Final score was 93-77. Do not let it fool you into thinking that Ateneo did not play defense. The game was mostly fast-paced and the Growling Tigers were with their starting lineup until the last minute. The commentators actually stopped talking about the game itself halfway into the fourth. Pido was just relentlessly instilling the never-say-die attitude to his team.
But the reason was not purely on defense. It was more on Eman Monfort's breakout performance. He shot the lights out with six rainbow shots. Ryan Buenafe (14), Eric Salamat (14), and Al-Hussaini (13) all contributed on the offensive end. This year's version is just loaded on all positions. We did not even need Jainamite to explode.
Ateneo's Hell Week was more of a Heaven Week for Ateneo hoops fans. We were treated to a strong defensive team which has a reliable offense that has a high ceiling. The Eagles soared but I think we are just starting. I just hope that the team has this same confidence and composure when we are battling at the games that matter.
On a side note, it was a Jessica Mendoza week for me as well. I got a dose of seeing the past ACET topnotcher thrice in TV as she delivered dead-on reports. Beauty and brains, indeed. She was able to catch the most significant messages by Norman Black awhile ago from 'starting slow in the previous games' to 'not letting up in the final quarter'. Great job so far.
As for commentators, let me just say that I could not resist the temptation to write Boom Gonzales' quotable quotes from the Adamson-UP game last Saturday. I just do not like the way he creates his own basketball language. He is creative in a way but he has to deliver more credibility before fans would accept his own lingo. Here they are: (FYI, this just came on the last three minutes of that ball game)
send back to earth - block
pendulum-swinging game - tight ball game which features several lead changes
cleaned up that rim - ball circles around the rim
uncork - shoot
For more Boom Gonzales' invented terms, check out Mond's blog - http://pinoykonyoguide.blogspot.com/
By the way, I think the most decent of the commentators would be Luigi Trillo based on the Ateneo game awhile ago. He had sensible analysis on how the Ateneo roster was structured through the years. The season is a long way to go but his commentating was the best so far. I guess it just runs through their veins.
Let me end with my early season power rankings.
Courtside Reporters: (Since I have tweeted a lot on this)
1. Jessica Mendoza (Ateneo)
2. Kryzelle O' Connor (FEU)
3. Maan Panganiban (NU)
4. Erika Flores (UP)
5. Pach Cansana (UST)
6. Tiff Atendido (UE)
7. Job de Leon (AdU) - sorry, you're a guy but I should actually put him higher
8. Erin Torrejon (DLSU)
By the way, follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeffdelprado
Most Valuable Player Race:
1. Rabeh Al-Hussaini (Ateneo)
2. Mark Barroca (FEU)
3. Dylan Ababou (UST)
4. Paul Lee (UE)
5. Aldrech Ramos (FEU)
UAAP Teams
1. Ateneo de Manila University Blue Eagles (3-0)
2. University of the East Red Warriors (2-1)
3. University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers (2-1)
4. Far Eastern University Tamaraws (1-1)
5. Adamson University Soaring Falcons (1-1)
6. National University Bulldogs (1-2)
7. University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons (0-2)
8. De La Salle University Green Archers (0-2)
Number 1 is a no brainer. Ranks 2-4 are quite close but I put UE in front because like FEU, they owned DLSU big time. Like UST, they dominated NU as well. UST and FEU are actually tied but I put UST ahead because the had Win # 2. Anyway, we are not sure if NU or DLSU is better. Adamson beats NU because Adamson could have been 2-0 had they won the squeaker of a game they had with UST. UP beats DLSU because on the point differentials and the fact that UP almost won their game against Adamson.
I guess that's all for now.
Go Ateneo! One Big Fight!
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