Kenji Roman is just one of the many players who are MVP Candidates for this season's UAAP Juniors action. (Photo Credit: Josh Albelda, ABS-CBN Sports) Results: Ateneo Blue Eaglets def. UE Junior Warriors 89-62 FEU Baby Tamaraws def. UPIS Junior Maroons 84-68 AdU Baby Falcons def. DLSZ Junior Archers 78-53 NU Bullpups def. UST Tiger Cubs 73-64 Notable Performances: SJ Belangel (ADMU): 10 points, 12 rebounds, 12 assists Daniel Celzo (FEU): 18 points, 9 rebounds, 2 blocks Kenji Roman (FEU): 13 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists Juan Gomez de Liano (UPIS): 22 points, 10 rebounds Encho Serrano (AdU): 22 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists Martin Romero (DLSZ): 8 points, 10 rebounds, 2 steals John Lloyd Clemente (NU): 23 points, 8 rebounds Inand Fornillos (UST): 24 points, 14 rebounds, 5 blocks  Key Storylines: The MVP Race is starting to heat up It was already expected coming into the season that Juan Gomez de Liano would be the one leading the pack for the

Can anyone stop Gerry Abadiano and the Adamson Baby Falcons? (Photo Credit to Owner) Results: FEU Baby Tamaraws def. UE Junior Warriors 100-82 AdU Baby Falcons def. Ateneo Blue Eaglets 77-65 NU Bullpups def. DLSZ Junior Archers 80-55 UST Tiger Cubs def. UPIS Junior Maroons 69-67 Notable Performances: Xyrus Torres (FEU): 23 points, 7 rebounds Daniel Celzo (FEU): 18 points, 10 rebounds, 2 blocks Encho Serrano (AdU): 23 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals SJ Belangel (ADMU): 14 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists Juan Gomez de Liano (UPIS): 20 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 8 turnovers  Miguel Ratuiste (UST): 21 points, 16 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks Key Storylines: Ateneo has a BIG problem For their first game of the season, Ateneo immediately trotted out a line-up which featured four players standing at 6'3" and above plus elite playmaker, SJ Belangel. The scary thing was that Ateneo had more players who stood that tall in the team

"Oy, title contender din kami!" - The FEU Tamaraws probably, after beating the Ateneo Blue Eaglets. (Photo Credit: Richard Esguerra, ABS-CBN Sports) Results: AdU Baby Falcons def. NU Bullpups 80-67 FEU Baby Tamaraws def. Ateneo Blue Eagles 77-73 DLSZ Junior Archers def. UST Tiger Cubs 64-58 UPIS Junior Maroons def. UE Junior Warriors 95-63 Notable Performances: Encho Serrano (AdU): 25 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists Rhayyan Amsali (NU): 12 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists  LJ Gonzales (FEU): 13 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 5 steals Dave Ildefonso (ADMU): 22 points, 7 rebounds, 6 steals SJ Belangel (ADMU): 17 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals, 10 turnovers Juan Gomez de Liano (UPIS): 24 points, 11 rebounds, 3 steals Ralph Labao (UPIS): 14 points, 9 rebounds, 10 steals Key Storylines Time to stop sleeping on the Adamson Baby Falcons When my rankings for the teams this UAAP Season 79, a number of people were surprised

Title favorites, they could very well be. The Adamson Baby Falcons are looking like a well-oiled machine. (Photo Credit: Arvin Lim, ABS-CBN Sports) Results: UPIS Junior Maroons def. DLSZ Juniors Archers 81-59 AdU Baby Falcons def. FEU Baby Tamaraws 78-65 UE Junior Warriors def. UST Tiger Cubs 87-77 NU Bullpups def. Ateneo Blue Eaglets 73-68 Notable Performances: Juan Gomez de Liano (UPIS): 20 points (6/9 shooting), 9 rebounds, 6 assists  Kenji Roman (FEU): 12 points, 15 rebounds, 3 assists Dustin Angeles (UE): 20 points, 4 rebounds, 4 steals SJ Belangel (ADMU): 23 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists Winderlich Coyoca (NU): 20 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals John Lloyd Clemente (NU): 14 points, 13 rebounds, 3 assists Inand Fornillos (UST): 17 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals  Key Storylines The UE Junior Warriors finally win one! The last time the UE Junior Warriors won a basketball game in the UAAP... Barack Obama was

SJ Belangel has established himself as one of the favorites for MVP. (Photo Credit: Joji Lapuz, Fabilioh) Results:  Ateneo Blue Eaglets def. UST Tiger Cubs 79-73 FEU Baby Tamaraws def. DLSZ Junior Archers 66 - 56  AdU Baby Falcons def. UPIS Junior Maroons 82-59 NU Bullpups def. UE Junior Warriors 104-54 Notable Performances: SJ Belangel (ADMU): 20 points, 15 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals Kenji Roman (FEU): 8 points, 16 rebounds, 7 assists Inand Fornillos (UST): 16 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists Juan Gomez de Liano (UPIS): 18 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists  Carl Tamayo (AdU): 14 points, 11 rebounds John Lloyd Clemente: 21 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists Key Storylines The dominance of the Adamson Baby Falcons When I had ranked the Baby Falcons as my #1 team for the upcoming UAAP season, a number of pundits were surprised. After all, they didn't have any notable blue-chip names in the level of SJ Belangel and Juan GDL. Against

Before the season started, people were already branding Season 79 to be the De La Salle University Championship Tour. There was some merit to that. After all, among all of the line-ups in the UAAP, La Salle had the only intact line-up aside from a UE team that has been struggling to make it to the Final Four. Plus, they have (arguably) the best player in the country right now in Ben Mbala, plus (arguably) the best local player in the UAAP right now in Jeron Teng. Who could stop these Green Archers? Just chalk up the championship for La Salle. It's a sure thing for them to win anyway. If anything, today's clash against the FEU Tamaraws taught us that the La Salle Green Archers are still a work in progress amidst their perceived dominance. The game started out with La Salle struggling to initiate their mayhem press. It wasn't a matter of FEU breaking the press, La Salle just couldn't implement it in the way that they did during the preseason, usual

Photo Credit: Inquirer.net September 4, 2016 2:47 AM I was already sleeping at 1:30 AM dreaming of a bonfire in Katipunan. Beer would be flowing while the rest of the Blue Eagles would tirelessly sign autographs. Fans would celebrate and shout "ONE BIG FIGHT!!!" Then there I would be in the corner, documenting everything that was happening with a smile on my face.   One hour later, I wake up and realize that it was all just a dream.  I try to go back to sleep, but to no avail. It's weird. The girlfriend's sound asleep. The brother isn't snoring, and he smells rather good this time around. My alarm clocks are off, it is the weekend after all. So why can't I sleep? I listen a bit closer, and I start to hear the drums.  "ONE BIG FIGHT!" one side shouts. "Go USTe!!!" the other says.  Oh crap. It's that time of the year again. It's the UAAP season. Sleepless nights like these? It's going to be nothi

It's 15 days to go before the UAAP starts, and the excitement for the tournament is slowly increasing as the tournament draws closer. Even though we've had multiple preseason tourneys and various tune-ups, there are still various questions that come out every time a team is mentioned. What are some of these questions which fans are hoping to be answered as soon as possible? Here are some of the questions: UST Growling Tigers: Will they surprise once again? Without Ferrer and Daquioag, all eyes are on Louie Vigil. (Photo Credit: Inquirer.net) No one expected UST to finish a game away from a championship last season. Considering their lack of depth and unproven coaching, there was no reason for fans to believe that they would have even made it to the Final Four. UST finds themselves in the same situation, albeit with different characters this time around. Instead of being led by Ed Daquioag, Kevin Ferrer and Karim Abdul, the Growling Tigers will be led by Kent La

Scores for August 15, 2016: Mapua (8-2) def. JRU (2-8) 81-79 Arellano (9-1) def. EAC (0-10) 90-64 San Beda (9-1) def. San Sebastian (1-9) 111-55 LSGH (7-3) def. Perpetual (4-6) 95-80 Is the MVP awardee a lock at this point? (Photo Credit: The Manansala) The NCAA has long been home to some of the very best in High School Basketball. From players like Arvin Tolentino, Andrei Caracut, Javee Mocon, JBoy Gob, Mark Cruz and Ricci Rivero, the NCAA has proven as training ground for the future of Pinoy Hoops. How do those five players relate with each other though? They don't have a MVP award.

The NCAA has long been home to some of the very best in High School basketball, and one way of gauging who is best fit for collegiate sports is the named Mythical Five of the NCAA Juniors Basketball tournament. For this blog post, we'll be naming five players who will make up of the MVP Race/Mythical Five. This year's batch of players is amongst the deepest in recent memory. Since that's the case, naming five players to make up the Mythical Five is a tough task in itself. It's always been a tough task before, but the sheer depth of talent and production this season has been close to unprecedented. College ready players are seemingly all over this time around. Here are some of the notable players who missed the cut: Sherwin Concepcion, Malayan Red Robins Evan Nelle, San Beda Red Cubs Carlo Abadeza, Arellano Braves Jasper Salenga, Malayan Red Robins Joel Cagulangan, LSGH Greenies Makki Santos, LPU Juniors Pirates With that, here's my top 5 players for the

We're just living in Troy Mallilin's world at this point. (Photo Credit: Josh Albelda, ABS-CBN Sports)  Current Standing Arellano Braves           8-1 San Beda Red Cubs     8-1 Malayan Red Robins   7-2 LSGH Greenies           6-3 Lyceum Junior Pirates 5-4 Letran Squires             4-5 UPHSD Altalettes       4-5 JRU Light Bombers    2-7 SSC-R Staglets           1-8 EAC Brigadiers          0-9 Top in Stats after Round One: Troy Mallilin, LSGH 21.8 PPG Aaron Fermin, Arellano 11.1 RPG Joel Cagulangan, LSGH 4.7 APG Joel Cagulangan, LSGH, 3.6 SPG Aaron Fermin, Arellano, 2.0 BPG 

(Photo Credit: SLAM Philippines) It was the 4th quarter of the SLAM Rising Stars all-star game, and Team Punks found themselves in quite a hole. All of a sudden, Evan Nelle of the San Beda Red Cubs opted to show up and shot two threes from Steph Curry range to give Team Punks the lead. One of my colleagues proceeded to say, "Iba talaga yung Nelle pag dating ng 4th quarter." It was like watching Clark Kent take off his suit and tie so that he can show off his uniform and cape. Nelle showed off his skills as if he went into full on Super Saiyan mode because he saw Krillin get killed by Frieza. The message was clear. The 4th quarter was Evan Nelle's show, and we were about to see more of this come NCAA Season 92. Fast-forward to August, and what we see is an Evan Nelle in tears, after their loss against the Arellano Braves. "Hard to move on, grabe," mentioned Nelle when I asked him how he was coping with the loss against Arellano. Moving from a lo

Maybe it's time to stop linking Mahindra and this guy too much? (Photo Credit: GMA News Online) I turned on the TV to watch the Alaska-Mahindra game. Part of it was because sir Mico Halili mentioned that the game between the two squads was bananas. Another reason was because I was pretty bored. But the main reason? I wanted to see Manny Pacquiao match-up against The Beast Calvin Abueva. It was surely going to be entertaining, whether it be in a negative or positive manner. Instead, what I saw was different. I saw James White score a pull-up jumper from the right corner to cut the lead to 3. Keith Agovida was seen from a distance doing things which you wouldn't expect him to do. Mike DiGregorio provided his own version of heroics down the line. I didn't see Manny Pacquiao scoring any buckets. Instead, what I saw was a Mahindra team who wanted to prove that they were more than just the "Manny Pacquiao Team". They didn't just go ahead on a limb agains

The Red Cubs are suddenly missing this feeling of victory after their loss against Arellano. (Photo Credit: Spin.ph) Play a game of word association, and some of the words that you may associate with the San Beda Red Cubs are: Fearless. Dominant. Words that evoke a certain feeling of leadership from a squad that has won the last 7 championships in the NCAA. All of a sudden, what we get is a team that is: Downtrodden. At a loss of words. Recently, the San Beda Red Lions suffered their first loss in the regular season after 26 assignments, losing to the Arellano Braves 93-90. "Hindi nga mawala yung iyak ko eh," mentioned team captain Sam Abu Hijleh. Even while talking to Sam just over a Twitter Direct Message, you could immediately sense the feeling of heft when it came to discussing why they lost. San Beda had all of the opportunities to win the game. The fans knew it. Sam himself knew it. "We had all the opportunities to win the game. Pero pinakaw

Scores for August 8, 2016: Arellano (8-0) def. San Beda (7-1), 93-90 Lyceum (4-4) def. Perpetual (4-4), 117-93 San Sebastian (1-7) def. EAC (0-8) 87-71 New kings of the jungle? Remember the name: Guilmer Dela Torre. (Photo Credit: Richard Esguerra)  It was bound to end at some point. But you can't deny that the way it ended was beautiful to watch. Arellano and San Beda engaged in an incredibly memorable tiff, as Arellano stood tall and ended San Beda's unbeaten run, with a 93-90 win against the Red Cubs. This was Beda's first regular season loss after 25 straight elimination round wins, while this was Arellano's second win against the Red Cubs in two years. It was a close affair the whole game, with the first and second quarters both ending in deadlocks. With Evan Nelle starting off ice cold in the game, it looked like the stage was set for him to turn on the jets come the second half. Instead, that wasn't the case as another guard was the one w