Two (or three) games in, and I'm still astounded by the fact that only a few (I can count by my fingers) of the UAAP players actually made huge improvements to their game. In the United States, this is what college basketball analysts term as the "jump." It occurs when the roles are expanded for certain players due to the departure of prominent and key pieces to their school's basketball team. In the league, more than the TV hype, I'm just left...wanting. There's just not enough guys who actually wanted  to make the "jump." What is the offseason for? Is it to chow down (Mr. Bono, it's good to see you)? Catching up on academics to be eligible to play next season (Jobe knows)? Shoot commercials (Oh was that Jeron?)?  Is a player going to retool? What facet of his game will he improve on? Will he even improve at all or has he plateaued? Are we all agreeing this time that only Rabeh Al-Hussaini has enjoyed such a leap after all these years in the...

This will be a very straightforward post that aims to answer some questions regarding the Eagles so let's just get it started. 1. This team seems more capable of going all the way compared to last year's team. I'll be very frank. Last year's team had no business being the #1 seed. The talent that the team had last year was nothing compared to the depth that NU, La Salle, FEU, UE and hell even UST had. That's not to say that Newsome and Elorde sucked. I'm just saying that last year's team isn't as deep as others. This year, that isn't the case. Quite literally, anyone from the team can be an immediate contributor. Need threes? Get Arvin or Von. Need someone to set hard picks and points in the paint? You have Apacible, Ikeh and Gotladera. Need clutch? Kiefer. And many more. 2. Ball movement was a thing of beauty. Lots of Ateneo fans complained that the only play Ateneo had last year was "GIVE THE BALL TO KIEFER AND GTFO". Well, that wasn...

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.

      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).   For the last post of this series, I will be analyzing the reigning and defending champions. The Ateneo Blue Eagles.

   Okay, now for my second post for the preview and predictions of Season 76! For this post, we'll be talking about the MVP Race that will happen for this season.   Many people say that the MVP Race shouldn't be of utmost importance. Players will always try to downplay the awards that they get by saying stuff such as: "We should focus on winning a championship, not MVPs" or, "I win these awards because of my team mates". Whether you like it or not, deep inside those players' minds, they are happy and proud of themselves and NOT their team mates that they won the award. Well, they should be.   Last year's MVP Race was really close, with Ray Ray Parks barely beating Karim Abdul for the award. This year's Race may end up being closer.   To start things off, I'll declare my personal top 5 candidates for the award. My prediction for the top 5 is based SOLELY on my prediction for the stats of a player, since the stats of a player is the ...

   While I was in the car last Saturday "watching" the Ateneo - La Salle game through my twitter, I read a certain tweet that had the moniker "Blue Granada" to it. So, who is Blue Granada?   The one and only Kiefer Ravena. Blue Granada was virtually unstoppable against La Salle.   Now, some of you may wonder, why are some basketball pundits calling Kiefer, the Blue Granada?   First, he's being coached by Bo Perasol, who formerly coached the Powerade Tigers. In that same Powerade team, he coached a monster of a scorer... which brings us to our second reason.   Gary David was this monster of a scorer, and his moniker was El Granada because he was virtually unstoppable in the offensive end. So now, I will recap the game that was, and I will also answer the question...   Is Kiefer deserving of the moniker Blue Granada? Nagliyab nga ba ang kamay ni Kiefer Ravena?

The Filoil Flying V's tournament tagline is "Where it all begins..". Well today, June 1, starts another chapter of the ever so popular Ateneo - La Salle rivalry. Two of the league's brightest young stars face off this afternoon at the Arena. (photo courtesy of spin.ph) Same teams, different faces. Very much different. First, let's see some of the new faces for both squads, and how they will impact their respective teams come game time.