The season starts in a couple of days, and teams are surely preparing hard for the grand chase to the Championship. The parity for the league this year is practically unheard of, with nearly every team being contenders not only for a Final Four spot, but also for the championship.
For my preview and predictions for each team, I will predict the team's standing (meaning the place that they will be in), and the different developments that I expect to see from the team as the season rolls on. I will also list down the key players for the team's run to the Final Four, and the players who we should watch out for developmental wise (rookies and bench players fall under this category).
Now, we'll be analyzing the much controversial FEU Tamaraws.
FEU Tamaraws
Season 75 Record: 9 - 5
Head Coach: Nash Racela
Lingering Question: Can they avoid off court altercations and controversies by co - existing for the sake of a championship?
Preseason analysis:
In my opinion, the preseason was a start of a road to hell for the Tamaraws. It all started when they in a sense, triggered the #NewUAAPRule. Controversy # 1. All of a sudden, reports of FEU standout Anthony Hargrove being caught with drugs started to spread like wildfire. Despite this though, Hargrove was kept from the school. This left quite a bad taste in the mouth of UAAP fans. Controversy #2. Russell Escoto is diagnosed with an ACL tear, and is out for the rest of the year. Controversy #3. Lastly, Terrence Romeo is suspended by Nash Racela for an indefinite amount of time after arriving late for a game during the Filoil Tournament. Controversy #4. Nothing else has to be said. This team was simply controversial during the preseason. Their relatively poor performance during the preseason simply adds insult to injury.
Season 76 Predictions:
Truth is, you can still consider FEU as contenders for this year. It's just that their chances aren't as grand as compared to Season 75, 74 and most especially 73.
This is a team that consists of practically the same guys from last season, except for a couple of under the radar recruits. The roster can easily be a Final Four roster. There's quite a big problem though. It's a problem Coach Nash Racela wants to fix, but it may be too much of a problem for one coach to fix. The team's "me first" mentality.
Terrence Romeo is too much of a ball hog, thus limiting the opportunities of RR Garcia. Anthony Hargrove can be erratic at times, and when he gets pissed, he has this bad tendency to become selfish. All of these will come into the play for the season at hand.
Now, we'll be analyzing the much controversial FEU Tamaraws.
FEU Tamaraws
Season 75 Record: 9 - 5
Head Coach: Nash Racela
Lingering Question: Can they avoid off court altercations and controversies by co - existing for the sake of a championship?
Preseason analysis:
In my opinion, the preseason was a start of a road to hell for the Tamaraws. It all started when they in a sense, triggered the #NewUAAPRule. Controversy # 1. All of a sudden, reports of FEU standout Anthony Hargrove being caught with drugs started to spread like wildfire. Despite this though, Hargrove was kept from the school. This left quite a bad taste in the mouth of UAAP fans. Controversy #2. Russell Escoto is diagnosed with an ACL tear, and is out for the rest of the year. Controversy #3. Lastly, Terrence Romeo is suspended by Nash Racela for an indefinite amount of time after arriving late for a game during the Filoil Tournament. Controversy #4. Nothing else has to be said. This team was simply controversial during the preseason. Their relatively poor performance during the preseason simply adds insult to injury.
Season 76 Predictions:
Truth is, you can still consider FEU as contenders for this year. It's just that their chances aren't as grand as compared to Season 75, 74 and most especially 73.
This is a team that consists of practically the same guys from last season, except for a couple of under the radar recruits. The roster can easily be a Final Four roster. There's quite a big problem though. It's a problem Coach Nash Racela wants to fix, but it may be too much of a problem for one coach to fix. The team's "me first" mentality.
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| Terrence Romeo has to pass the rock more in order for FEU to succeed. (credits to ph.sports.yahoo.com) |
Terrence Romeo is too much of a ball hog, thus limiting the opportunities of RR Garcia. Anthony Hargrove can be erratic at times, and when he gets pissed, he has this bad tendency to become selfish. All of these will come into the play for the season at hand.
How will coach Nash's system come into play for FEU? Well, he wants good ball distribution, meaning effective ball movement is key in order to play with this system. Romeo has a reputation of being a ball stopper, and I honestly don't see him changing that any time soon. Because of Romeo's ball hogging tendencies, the flow of the offense will mess up, thus messing up the whole system. Terrence will try to fit into it, but his morale might go down because of it.
Other than the basketball side of things, expect some off court altercations too. FEU will forever play a physical brand of basketball, and it could not only piss the living hell out of players, but fans as well.
Key players:
Of course, Terrence Romeo and RR Garcia will stand as the leaders of the team. They will also be the ones to lead the Tamaraws back court, especially with the offensive side of things. Manning the front court are the two imports of FEU, Anthony Hargrove and Christian Sentcheu. They won't be able to play together though because of a UAAP rule concerning it, so expect them to sub each other out in the 5 position. Also key for FEU's cause are Carl Cruz, Mark Belo and Roger Pogoy.
Players to watch out for this season:
FEU doesn't have any blue chip recruits unlike the past few years after a certain someone who in a sense caused the creation of the #NewUAAPRule decided to take his talents to Katipunan. That doesn't mean that they don't have any players who are worth watching out for though.
One player we should watch out for is gunner Mike Tolomia. He's actually known as clutch player, but other than that, he is pretty unknown, mostly because he is overshadowed by Romeo and Garcia. He wasn't that heralded (meaning in the level of a Kiefer Ravena, Ray Parks, Jerie Pingoy to name a few) of a recruit during his High School days, but he has proven himself as an effective player in the senior ranks.
Other than the basketball side of things, expect some off court altercations too. FEU will forever play a physical brand of basketball, and it could not only piss the living hell out of players, but fans as well.
Key players:
Of course, Terrence Romeo and RR Garcia will stand as the leaders of the team. They will also be the ones to lead the Tamaraws back court, especially with the offensive side of things. Manning the front court are the two imports of FEU, Anthony Hargrove and Christian Sentcheu. They won't be able to play together though because of a UAAP rule concerning it, so expect them to sub each other out in the 5 position. Also key for FEU's cause are Carl Cruz, Mark Belo and Roger Pogoy.
Players to watch out for this season:
FEU doesn't have any blue chip recruits unlike the past few years after a certain someone who in a sense caused the creation of the #NewUAAPRule decided to take his talents to Katipunan. That doesn't mean that they don't have any players who are worth watching out for though.
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| Can he slowly step out of Terrence Romeo's shadow? (credits to spin.ph) |
One player we should watch out for is gunner Mike Tolomia. He's actually known as clutch player, but other than that, he is pretty unknown, mostly because he is overshadowed by Romeo and Garcia. He wasn't that heralded (meaning in the level of a Kiefer Ravena, Ray Parks, Jerie Pingoy to name a few) of a recruit during his High School days, but he has proven himself as an effective player in the senior ranks.
Another play on the watch is Archie Inigo, a product of the Letran high school program. He plays the point guard position, and he stands at around 5'8. In the NCAA juniors, he had a deadly pull up jumper that was the focus of the defense on him. He will surely aim to make an impact this year, since he is most likely the successor to RR Garcia (Mike plays the SG position) for the following years for the Morayta based team.
Place by the end of the season: 7th (will not make Final Four)
The new system and it's lack of cohesiveness with players will cause the downfall of this FEU team. You can add to that the controversies this team will be faced with. They will still be Final Four contenders, that I can assure you. Thing is, there are 6 other teams that will be better, and most importantly be more focused compared to them.
The next team that will be analyzed is the De La Salle Green Archers.
tsk tsk 7th for the season your face..
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