It was 9 in the morning yesterday. I was recently informed by Aly that the Ateneo-La Salle tickets would be sold by 6 PM of that day. It was a horrible change of schedule because even if it would discourage people from staying overnight at the Blue Eagle Gym, it would pose a more unpredictable volume of people as some might opt to stay the whole day for the tickets. Nevertheless, I tried to have a breakfast in McDonald’s Katipunan and have a quick look at the line to have an idea as to what time I might return to line up. By the way, I just came from work then so I pretty much have all the time in the world to line up (well, at the expense of my sleep).
After eating my usual McDo breakfast meal, Sausage McMuffin with Egg, I tried to have a quick look at Blue Eagle Gym. I have a feeling that they might release some tickets because some people might not expect this change of schedule. During the finals of UST and Ateneo two years ago, I was told that there were times when they sold at various times. When I arrived at the Blue Eagle Gym, reality struck me. Lo and behold! There is a long line already! I saw Caloy in there and I decided to stay and line up as well because I already blundered by not arriving early to join him line up. The major difference that this one had from my previous ticket buying experiences before is that, (aside from staying up incredibly longer) I have someone to talk with for the depressing long time of waiting. Aside from my friend, I was able to converse with some Ateneo alumni lining up with us.
To keep the long, enduring line story short, I waited and endured ten hours of lining up before I got the usual tickets – two Upper Box B tickets. I sacrificed my sleep for it as well because I could hardly sleep in the hot environment. The hard concrete walls do not help it either. The only consolations that I had during that day were a new Ateneo 150 years t-shirt, a 150 years car sticker, an ID lace and a chance to eat at Ababu as I have been craving for it lately.
The funny thing with this is, I sacrificed a lot of precious time just for a non-bearing game. Win or lose, we will still end up as the number 1 seed in the standings. It is just a game for pride and there is no assurance that Team Ateneo will exert its full energy for this game because they might risk injury to key players. In fact, I would be supporting for this despite of all the ‘play for pride’ reasoning. I would rather see Ateneo lose to La Salle this Saturday than see them lose another heartbreaker in the Final Four or in the Finals due to some effects of this game.
Why am I suddenly not minding La Salle to win on Ateneo this Saturday? It is because I want the team to be the champions this year. It is not just about beating La Salle yearly anymore, instead it is about being the best team. It has been six years since we last held the UAAP Men’s Basketball crown. If there is one thing that I have learned through the years, it is to be pessimistic because Ateneo was always in contention in all those six years. The team gets to have a strong show in the eliminations by having winning streaks only to fold in the big games as the opposition has studied them and there is no more room for upside and peaking as the team is concerned.
The difficult thing in being an Ateneo fan is, there are many die-hard fans and they exert a better effort than I do. They will sacrifice their precious time to line up the whole day just to get two Upper B tickets. Some might not even be able to get tickets. This is because everything is for school pride.
Matalo na sa lahat, huwag lang sa La Salle. That was the thinking I shared with many Ateneans before. It did not matter if we do not capture the UAAP crown. What mattered was, we win our yearly duels with La Salle. Unfortunately, this only happened in 2003 (last year can be counted but La Salle eliminated us). I saw Ateneo crumble to La Salle and see their arch-rivals take home the title because they battle to win the title then. The closest Ateneo was able to achieve the crown was when La Salle was suspended. Again, we were unfortunate not to win it despite of having a dominant eliminations record.
This year, we see Ateneo dominating the eliminations once again. The team, despite of their convincing wins and fundamental gameplay, has still to beat the ghosts of the past by winning in the bigger games. What Ateneo has done so far is to put themselves on the best position to win the championship but to think of it, the team has not yet achieved anything. Team Ateneo needs to win the championship in order for us to gain the bragging rights. As far as I am concerned, it is just La Salle who has the bragging rights so far. They have less talent this year and their record is inferior to us but they still own those bragging rights. Another win on Saturday does not add any bragging right to us – we just get to bash them for a few days and that’s all it is. After all, Ateneo has come up short in the past six years after putting themselves in a good position after the eliminations. This is why I am not stating that Ateneo is the most likely team to win it all.
Nevertheless, I still endured and bought my tickets. I am still going to cheer my heart out this Saturday. We might still have the consolation that a loss would not do us any bad. I will understand Coach Norman Black if he fields a lineup that is not suited for winning this game. I am still hoping for an Ateneo win because it would be part of the revenge for our past losses to La Salle. It would be sweet to sweep them but what matters most is, we do not lose as much as we win in this non-bearing game. This is for hoping for a ONE BIG FIGHT against the Green Archers. Beat them with your hearts this Saturday. I just hope that Coach Norman won’t be sacrificing some strategies so that Coach Franz would not be able to take note of them in the next games. Save the secret weapons for the last (if there are). One Big Fight!
After eating my usual McDo breakfast meal, Sausage McMuffin with Egg, I tried to have a quick look at Blue Eagle Gym. I have a feeling that they might release some tickets because some people might not expect this change of schedule. During the finals of UST and Ateneo two years ago, I was told that there were times when they sold at various times. When I arrived at the Blue Eagle Gym, reality struck me. Lo and behold! There is a long line already! I saw Caloy in there and I decided to stay and line up as well because I already blundered by not arriving early to join him line up. The major difference that this one had from my previous ticket buying experiences before is that, (aside from staying up incredibly longer) I have someone to talk with for the depressing long time of waiting. Aside from my friend, I was able to converse with some Ateneo alumni lining up with us.
To keep the long, enduring line story short, I waited and endured ten hours of lining up before I got the usual tickets – two Upper Box B tickets. I sacrificed my sleep for it as well because I could hardly sleep in the hot environment. The hard concrete walls do not help it either. The only consolations that I had during that day were a new Ateneo 150 years t-shirt, a 150 years car sticker, an ID lace and a chance to eat at Ababu as I have been craving for it lately.
The funny thing with this is, I sacrificed a lot of precious time just for a non-bearing game. Win or lose, we will still end up as the number 1 seed in the standings. It is just a game for pride and there is no assurance that Team Ateneo will exert its full energy for this game because they might risk injury to key players. In fact, I would be supporting for this despite of all the ‘play for pride’ reasoning. I would rather see Ateneo lose to La Salle this Saturday than see them lose another heartbreaker in the Final Four or in the Finals due to some effects of this game.
Why am I suddenly not minding La Salle to win on Ateneo this Saturday? It is because I want the team to be the champions this year. It is not just about beating La Salle yearly anymore, instead it is about being the best team. It has been six years since we last held the UAAP Men’s Basketball crown. If there is one thing that I have learned through the years, it is to be pessimistic because Ateneo was always in contention in all those six years. The team gets to have a strong show in the eliminations by having winning streaks only to fold in the big games as the opposition has studied them and there is no more room for upside and peaking as the team is concerned.
The difficult thing in being an Ateneo fan is, there are many die-hard fans and they exert a better effort than I do. They will sacrifice their precious time to line up the whole day just to get two Upper B tickets. Some might not even be able to get tickets. This is because everything is for school pride.
Matalo na sa lahat, huwag lang sa La Salle. That was the thinking I shared with many Ateneans before. It did not matter if we do not capture the UAAP crown. What mattered was, we win our yearly duels with La Salle. Unfortunately, this only happened in 2003 (last year can be counted but La Salle eliminated us). I saw Ateneo crumble to La Salle and see their arch-rivals take home the title because they battle to win the title then. The closest Ateneo was able to achieve the crown was when La Salle was suspended. Again, we were unfortunate not to win it despite of having a dominant eliminations record.
This year, we see Ateneo dominating the eliminations once again. The team, despite of their convincing wins and fundamental gameplay, has still to beat the ghosts of the past by winning in the bigger games. What Ateneo has done so far is to put themselves on the best position to win the championship but to think of it, the team has not yet achieved anything. Team Ateneo needs to win the championship in order for us to gain the bragging rights. As far as I am concerned, it is just La Salle who has the bragging rights so far. They have less talent this year and their record is inferior to us but they still own those bragging rights. Another win on Saturday does not add any bragging right to us – we just get to bash them for a few days and that’s all it is. After all, Ateneo has come up short in the past six years after putting themselves in a good position after the eliminations. This is why I am not stating that Ateneo is the most likely team to win it all.
Nevertheless, I still endured and bought my tickets. I am still going to cheer my heart out this Saturday. We might still have the consolation that a loss would not do us any bad. I will understand Coach Norman Black if he fields a lineup that is not suited for winning this game. I am still hoping for an Ateneo win because it would be part of the revenge for our past losses to La Salle. It would be sweet to sweep them but what matters most is, we do not lose as much as we win in this non-bearing game. This is for hoping for a ONE BIG FIGHT against the Green Archers. Beat them with your hearts this Saturday. I just hope that Coach Norman won’t be sacrificing some strategies so that Coach Franz would not be able to take note of them in the next games. Save the secret weapons for the last (if there are). One Big Fight!
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