NU Bulldogs (4 - 3) def. DLSU Green Archers (3 - 4) 63 - 56 I have this feeling Ray Parks is deceiving us all. (credits to uaapsports.studio23.tv)    A number of people have noticed there has been a slight dip in terms of Ray Parks' performance for this season. Now the question isn't why there has been a dip in terms of his performance. I think the real question is... has his performance actually dipped?   Based on regular statistics at least, not exactly.

Ateneo Blue Eagles (3 - 4) def. UST Growling Tigers (4 - 3) 61 - 57 First Kiefer, and now Newsome. I feel bad for Abdul. (credits to Fabilioh and sir Philip Sison)   The title Stitches and Burns is usually associated to the song by Norweigan New Wave band Fra Lippo Lippi. Well, we could actually associate the song to the relationship between UST and Ateneo.   The song talks about a guy who, we could assume, just recently broke up with his girlfriend. He states that, he will no longer fall for any of the tricks that his girlfriend did back then, but deep inside, he actually still loves the girl. Eventually though, he realizes that he can come to terms with the stitches and burns that he has received from the girl, and he is willing to move on, and fly again.    So why can we associate the song to the relationship between UST and Ateneo? Well, I'll explain that at the end of the article. Let's go through the usual motions first.

DLSU Green Archers (3 - 3) def. Adamson Soaring Falcons (3 - 3) 70 - 67  Adamson was all eyes on the referees during this game. Just look at them. (credits to spin.ph)   What.   That's the very first thing I said when I read all the tweets regarding the unsportsmanlike foul that was called on Gian Abrigo. I had no idea whether it was really an unsportsmanlike foul or not since I was studying at that time for our English Long Test the next day (which turned out to be quite a toughie), thus the late post regarding this game. I got to watch the replay of the play earlier and all I could say was...   What.   What. Was. That.

Chris Newsome's slam leads this weekend's heart racing set of games. (credits to Fabilioh)       Remember how UAAP's tagline last year was "Unbreakable"?   Well, after the results of the past few games, I thought of a proposition to the UAAP Board.   What about we change the tagline of this year's UAAP Season from "Greatness Never Ends" to "Unpredictable"? Why that? Well that's pretty much what the UAAP has been this season!   Unpredictable.   Not only does it fittingly describe the season, but it also sounds way better than "Greatness Never Ends". Seriously.   Kidding aside, the season really has been unpredictable. I honestly expected it to be unpredictable in a sense that anyone could make the Final Four, but I didn't expect it to be THIS unpredictable. It has indeed come to a point where every team can make the Final Four, and it could even come to a point where we find out the COMPLETE Final Four cast

  If you think about it, the reason why UE got that win against Ateneo was because of Charles Mammie. Probably if Mammie wasn't in the team, Ateneo would have won that game by a considerable margin (no bias). Also, you can also say the reason why Adamson is back into contention this year is because of the addition of Ingrid Sewa, which shakes up the whole rotation of the team, especially the front court. You can also imagine FEU without Hargrove and Sentcheu... well that's pretty much FEU with a front court. What if Charles Mammie wasn't in the UE Red Warriors? (credits to abs-cbnnews.com)    In short, the inclusion of these imports in the UAAP have shaken up the league. It's been quite the controversial topic, but for now, we can't do anything about. Well, the least we can do is IMAGINE the UAAP without the imports!   Instead of going through the usual motions by posting game recaps of the past two play dates, I decided to create a "power ranking"

FEU Tamaraws (4 - 0) def. DLSU Green Archers (2 - 2) 83 - 79 in OT Terrence Romeo had to go all Super Saiyan in order for FEU to get this win. Get it? (credits to ph.sports.yahoo.com)   Wow. Just, wow.   Even though I'm an Atenean, I was looking forward to this game. It was a showdown between of the top teams in the league. One came from a come back victory against their arch rivals, and they had some revelations during that game as well. The other team was riding on a 3 - 0 winning streak, and slowly cemented their place as contenders despite a poor preseason.   It was a clash of opposites. One team relied heavily on their guards when it came to scoring. They had a poor interior game because of their lack of quality big men, but the hot shooting of their guards more than made up for this loss of their. One team relied on the inside game, as they had an imposing front line and a swing man who's virtually unstoppable when you play him one on one.   People expecte

  I won't be posting the recaps for the past three game dates because of personal problems, but I feel like I really have to write regarding this issue, not only because I am an Atenean, but also because I am a spectator of Philippine Basketball.    I've been watching the UAAP for almost 11 years now. If you do the Math, that's around 2002, the same year Ateneo won a UAAP championship. I remember the very first Ateneo jersey that I got; it was a Rich Alvarez jersey, and until now, it still fits me quite well. My very first Ateneo jersey. Rich Alvarez. (photo courtesy of writer)

  FEU Tamaraws (2 - 0) def. Ateneo Blue Eagles  (0 - 2) 79 - 75 in OT Even Ryan Buenafe's monster performance couldn't propel the Blue Eagles to a win. (credits to spin.ph)   Phew. What a game, to say the least.   In a game that was filled with drama despite the absence of star play maker Kiefer Ravena and ever so controversial Jerie Pingoy, only one could end up as the winner, and that title had to go to the FEU Tamaraws.    Fans of the Morayta based team went home happy, filled with confidence because of their two game winning streak. The fans from the blue side, however, went home sad, confused and filled with uncertainty for their future because of their two game losing streak.   Are the fans supposed to feel this way? Let's analyze the game and find out.

  Well, that was quite an opening weekend.   The UAAP has officially started, and the results for opening weekend were rather interesting. I won't be able to give out an extensive report of each game (probably the only game I could fully analyze was the Ateneo game, obviously), so I'll just present to you guys the summary of the games based from news reports and what I can get from these reports as well.