Vindicated: 2008 is the Year of the Eagle

Note: This is an old post from my Multiply site last September 28, 2008.

Seconds after JV Casio fouled out in the ending minutes of the Game 2 of the Ateneo – La Salle finals, I roared triumphantly with the victorious Atenean crowd in the Araneta Coliseum last Thursday. I knew that the game was over. The considerable lead plus the fact that the remaining Archers were struggling badly mean that it was all over. Once again, the Blue Eagle is the King of UAAP Men’s Basketball. I was at the state of nirvana in that last minute of regulation as I released all the stress from the six years of failure at every roar I made. The jubilation was further punctuated when the Ateneo crowd started flashing championship flyers to the La Salle crowd. This one is for all the years of coming up short and being jeered by the green crowd. This is our time!

Finally after years of frustration, the Ateneo Blue Eagles have capitalized on this one. This season’s convincing sweep has more than paid for the dreadful sweep of 2005. It is much sweeter because we swept our archrivals from eliminations to the finals. The very good thing about it as well is that the Blue Eagles did it in a classy way by not making arrogant poses and taunts. No need for THES banners even though we knew that we ranked higher than La Salle this year. The Blue Eagles finished their archrivals honourably and received their much-deserved title.

It was a very sweet vindication for Coach Norman Black and the Blue Eagles after years of hard work, dedication and development. Moreover it was similar if not greater for us, fans, who have been there through all the hard years. We cheered heavily despite of the impending loss in a heavily mismatched Ateneo-La Salle game during 2004-05. The blue clad crowd outnumbered the greenies then even if we knew we were going to lose unlike in this year’s version of Game 2 where a considerable part of the Upper Box B section of La Salle was quite empty after the awarding ceremonies. We had to deal with the heartbreak when UST was able to pull off a comeback in 2006. There was the ‘could have had it’ moment from last year as La Salle eliminated us despite the fact that we won more games than them. I was actually accustomed to congratulating alumni/students from the teams that beat us during those years. But keeping the faith with the team and persevering harder in lining up for tickets made this season’s victory a very sweet one.

Final(s) Analysis
Before I blurt out my emotions and insights from this season, I will discuss how and why the Blue Eagles won this year.

The Ateneo Blue Eagles finally bagged it because they have learned from the past. In Norman Black style, they were prepared to answer every weakness that La Salle will try to hit them on. Franz Pumaren usually exclaims that his Green Archers are successful because they peak at the right time. Ateneo responded by peaking at the right time while preventing the greenies from doing their own peaking. The Blue Eagles suddenly became loaded offensively (well, they are offensively loaded in paper/hype anyway) as Reyes, Nkemakolam, Baldos and Buenafe stepped up considerably. The Hail Mary squad had immense mental toughness that the trashtalking boys of Pumaren could not handle. Instead, the Green Archers lost their own composure and imploded when they received technical fouls for taunting. Nonoy Baclao’s roar after blocking Rico Maierhoffer sums this up the best. Even Franz Pumaren’s psychological tactics were countered by Norman Black. On and off the court.

The Blue Eagles controlled the game; they did not let the referees’ bad calls kill their game. One of the major differences of past Blue Eagle squads from this year’s is that, the Ateneans have controlled their temper when they received the wrong end of the calls. You seldom see Norman Black fuming whenever Ateneo suffered from a non-call. If the referees call the game tight, Ateneo adjusted instead of complaining. On the other hand, the Green Archers who were benefiting from calls years ago were the ones who could not adjust. As a result, they were called for a lot of fouls.

I think the classic example for learning to adjust on the referee’s calls is Rico Maierhoffer’s second technical foul in the Game 2. Assuming that the referees were not bribed in that game (give them the benefit of the doubt), Rico had it coming. He was complaining and trash-talking the whole series. The referees could be sensitive humans as well. Since Rico was not an appealing player to them, his act of flashing the dirty finger to Rabeh instantly was converted to a technical foul. I am not sure he made the phallic symbol but his body actions that game showed he was more inclined to do that instead of telling JV Casio (a guard) to rebound the ball with 16 seconds remaining in the shot clock. Man! I have to say that Rico’s reason/excuse (we are giving the benefit of the doubt here) was pretty stupid. Ateneo is a team that executes half-court offense by taking time. Telling your shooting guard to rebound the ball when the offensive team is still orchestrating its offense is crazy. Please do note though that I disagree in giving Rico his second T in there. They were at the middle of the third quarter of a crucial ballgame. The refs should have just given a warning. But then, Rico was still at fault because of his action because had he controlled his temper (given the fact that the referees were sensitive by calling technicals on taunting), he would not have put his team in such danger because of his silly action.

The Ateneo Blue Eagles played superb interior defense. If there was one thing that I was scared of the previous La Salle teams, it would have to be their strong slashing capability. It made me doubt of Ateneo’s big men prowess because their height was not sufficient to handle the speed and athleticism of the slashers like Joseph Yeo, Mac Cardona, Ryan Arana and Cholo Villanueva. This year, La Salle will not boast of their slashing. One name comes to mind: Nonoy Baclao. He was responsible for heavily limiting the points of James Mangahas and Rico Maierhoffer. La Salle is not usually strong in posting up in the middle so since it was a no fly zone this year, the high percentage field goal attempts were severely diminished.

As I have envisioned before if there is one team that is capable of beating La Salle on the Finals, that would have to be the Ateneo Blue Eagles. One reason is that the Loyola-based squad gets hyped up whenever they face their green counterparts due to the school rivalry. Another reason is because Ateneo is the most capable team to beat the press. Ever since 2002, I was always confident that the Blue Eagles will beat the vaunted press. We always recruit superb dribblers for our wingmen. The Blue Eagles also have the systematic way of beating it by working out as a team instead of over-relying on the point guards. Thus, La Salle ended up wasting their energy that they find it hard to heave for their jumpshots. The vaunted press did produce a lot of turnovers but these are still limited. Anyway, you cannot blame them from pressing because the Green Archers hardly stand a chance in defending the Blue Eagles once the latter sets up its halfcourt offense.

Lastly, Ateneo beat La Salle because the Hail Mary squad had the heart to win it all. So much has been said that La Salle will win the series if they play with heart because they are outmatched by Ateneo man-to-man, but I believe that the Blue Eagles had the stronger heart that is why they won it in convincing fashion. I am not underrating JV Casio’s heart especially when he cut the big Ateneo lead in the third quarter of Game 2 but that was all that La Salle had. Collectively, the Ateneo de Manila Blue Eagles had the heart of the champion. Rabeh prevailed on Game 1 even though he had a sprain. Jobe proved his naysayers wrong by exploding for eight points on the second quarter of Game 2. Ryan Buenafe did the same but on the first half of Game 1. Most of all, Nonoy Baclao had the heart to challenge all shots and rebound the misses to ensure that Ateneo, despite their offensive meltdown in the second half of Game 2, wins the Finals. The roars of both Nonoy and Rabeh in Game 1 just showed how emotionally involved they were in their pursuit for glory.

Euphoria, Journey and Redemption

It really feels great to be on top again. After all these years of waiting, we have prevailed from the adversity. It is sweet to capture the crown especially that it came against our archrivals. I think this is the peak of every sports fan’s ecstasy. As a die-hard fan, I endured years of disappointment. But since I cheered for them up to the end, the feeling is awesome when your team achieves the elusive crown. The mere picture of Chris Tiu and Rabeh Al-Hussaini kissing the UAAP Men’s Basketball Championship Award shows how sweet it is to achieve such moment. I would do the same if I were put in their position. Well, I did kiss my gold medal when my org basketball team won the championship in my final year in college after years of shortcomings as well.

What makes it sweeter is because the journey to achieving it was filled with adversity as the team struggled for six years with ups and downs. It is a testament that they have learned and prevailed. On last Thursday’s Mass at the Church of Gesu, Chris Tiu stated, “Adversity makes champions.” This year, the Ateneo Blue Eagles did not have that much adversity because they have dominated the league but the journey (which started six years ago) was filled with it. The Blue Eagles struggled year in and year out. As much as they had glorious moments by winning nail-biters then, they still failed on the big games at the end. Despite of the stars that they inherited from the 2002 powerhouse team, they had raw and inefficient contribution from their newbies. There were years where we almost had it, but we still failed to capitalize. Nevertheless, we learned from our mistakes and prevailed in the end. Winners are losers who learned their lessons.

Chris Tiu also said in his final speech that God works in mysterious ways. Rabeh was reportedly injured due to a sprain last Friday. It was a shock that it made the Blue Eagles practice Saturday without him (this was according to Fr. Ben Nebres in the Mass). This mishap turned into a blessing in disguise as Ateneo executed well when Rabeh rode the bench for virtually the entire first half of Game 2. As for Chris’ personal account of blessings in disguise, he stated that he was unable to play for a year because of his junior term abroad. But because of it, he was still eligible to play his final year this year. He may have lost to UST in 2006 and to La Salle in 2007 but because of those experiences, the team learned better in time to win in Chris’ final year in Ateneo and in the sweetest of all scenarios – against the De La Salle Green Archers. If you were to ask me, I would also accept this route even though I am not the one who is playing my final year this year. Why? The sweetest way to redeem for us, Ateneans, is to win the crown against La Salle. Go ahead and taunt us that we only win after six years (haha sourgrapers and immature sports fans only do that) but at least we still prevailed in a sweet manner. We may have failed for years but these were not done in vain because they were instrumental in developing this team’s character.

Speaking of character, I would have to conclude that Chris Tiu has got to be the best Blue Eagle of recent years. He may not be as skilled as Larry Fonacier, Enrico Villanueva, Rich Alvarez and LA Tenorio but he was the best leader. He capped off his final speech by stating a quote from St. Ignatius of Loyola about leadership. It goes something like this, “Leadership is not about discovering one’s talents. It is about developing the potential of the ones around you.” It pretty much sums up what he has done for the team these past two years. Perhaps, he learned its value when he was a benchwarmer in his early years. Those were the times when our rookies and sophomores were not shining similar to those of La Salle’s. That was because of the fact that the star players have overshadowed them. Chris showed the other way around during his King Eagle years by making his teammates shine so that the team will still be strong for the coming years. And yes, I am proud to say that the Ateneo Blue Eagles remain strong after the departure of their captain.

Remember my blog on Tiu and Casio? I guess this year’s finals answered the question. Ateneo got the better of the deal of the recruiting class of 2003. JV Casio is definitely more competent skills-wise as compared to Chris Tiu but when he was called for his fifth foul, you know his team is dead. When Chris Tiu rode the bench in Game 1, Ateneo even erupted with a bigger lead. That is because he was able to develop the players around him to be equipped when the going gets tough. They had that confidence that you won’t see on the Green Archers this Finals. Basketball is a team sport, not an individual game.

“Sometimes, the anticipation of something is more fun than the thing itself once you get it.” This quote came from Calvin and Hobbes. This simply summarizes my UAAP experience these past six years. For six years, we ended up each year failing but the journey that we took was a fun ride. There were the miracle shots and the comeback wins (remember the Adamson game when Larry Fonacier was out due to ACL?). I saw the guys who were bench-ridden develop and mature as players. Every season ended with a gratifying note as we knew that the Blue and White squad gave their one big fight for the greater glory of God. The hard work and sacrifice all ends this season on the highest note.

FYI, I was with Dad when we watched Game 2.

Congratulations!

To the Ateneo Blue Eagles and the Ateneo Blue Eaglets: Congratulations for winning the championships of your respective leagues this year. Thanks for bringing back the glory to the Ateneo. I hope we can make it back-to-back next year as we continue to field strong lineups.

To the die-hard Ateneo fans: Congratulations for keeping the faith with the team. Despite the years of frustrations, we always gave our one big cheer to uphold our Alma Mater. I just hope to get season tickets for next year because it is really hard competing with you guys in the lining up of tickets. Getting a General Admission ticket after lining up since 4:40 AM just shows how there are more die-hard fans than me. One big cheer! One big fight!

To the ones who jumped the Ateneo bandwagon: Go ahead and savour the championship with us. Thanks for supporting our team as well.

To the fair-weathered Ateneo fans: I hope that this season ignites the flame in your hearts. Remember, win or lose it’s the school we choose!

To the De La Salle Green Archers: Thanks for being a worthy adversary. You guys fought up to the end. Pulling down our huge lead to three points is a major feat. Keep your heads up. See you next year.

To the La Salle fans who accepted defeat graciously: Thanks for being a sport. You all know that your team does not win all the time. The important thing in sports is to be honourable in times of glory and defeat. Congratulations for staying with your team despite the fact that they were weaker this year.

To the sourgraping La Salle fans who just can’t accept the fact that their team cannot lose fair and square: 4>0. You guys did not stand a chance. Better stop eating your green ampalaya and grapes. Be proud of the fact that your team fought up to the end and lost to a worthy adversary. Until next year, losers! Remember in this rivalry, ang pikon ay talo. =P

To all Ateneans: Congratulations to us! It’s our time. After teasing our Lasallian counterparts (we are entitled to since we have the bragging rights for a year), may we be humble and continue to support the team next year. Animo Ateneo! One Big Fight! =)

Let’s end this glorious UAAP season with our Alma Mater song.

A Song For Mary

We stand on a hill
Between the earth and sky
Now all is still
Where Loyola's colors fly
Our course is run
And the setting sun
Ends Ateneo's day,
Eyes are dry at the last goodbye;
This is the Ateneo way.

Mary for you!
For your white and blue!
We pray you'll keep us, Mary
Constantly true!
We pray you'll keep us, Mary
Faithful to you!

Down from the hill,
Down to the world go I;
Rememb'ring still,
How the bright Blue Eagles fly.
Through joy and tears,
Through the laughing years,
We sing our battle song:
Win or lose,
It's the school we choose;
This is the place where we belong!

Mary for you!
For your white and blue!
We pray you'll keep us, Mary
Constantly true!
We pray you'll keep us, Mary
Faithful to you!