UAAP Season 76 Team Power Rankings...... Without the Imports

  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" of the teams WITHOUT their imports. Let's just imagine that the UAAP created a rule banning imports from playing in the league.


   Before going with the ranking of the teams, let me clarify the "rule" that we'll make first.

• Players with Filipino ethnicity are not affected by this rule. This means guys like Chris Newsome, Jason Perkins, Arnold Van Opstal and Ray Ray Parks are not affected by this rule. Chris, Jason and Ray are Fil - Am, while Arnold Van Opstal is Fil - German. 
• There are NO exceptions to this rule. Basically, the "Alex Compton excuse" can't be used here. What is the "Alex Compton excuse"? Well, to sum it up, Alex Compton is a PURE American, and he was allowed to play in the PBL despite his ethnicity. Why was he allowed? He's become a fixture in Philippine sports. As simple as that. So if Kirk Long was playing in the UAAP today, he would be affected by this rule.
• The residency rule effective as of this wring (or more popularly known as the Jerie Pingoy Rule) does not change. Pretty self explanatory. 

 The roster that will be used will be the Season 76 rosters submitted by the teams., The Jerie Pingoy Rule will still be in effect, meaning Jerie Pingoy will not be playing for the Blue Eagles for the power rankings. I'm only ranking the teams based on their possible REGULAR SEASON performance. I decided not to include the Final Four with the ranking because come the post season, imports don't really matter anymore when you think about it.

 To start of the rankings, we'll start from the bottom. Let's get it started!

8th Place: UP Fighting Maroons

Projected Starting Five: Asilum - Marata - Wong - Ball - Soyud

   With or without this rule, the UP Fighting Maroons will continue to be the cellar dwellers of the league. Truth is, you can't account UP's lack of an import for their poor performance. In fact, they actually had an import a year ago in Alinko Mbah. Sound familiar?

Yes, he was indeed an import for the UAAP a couple of years back.
(credits to sports.inquirer.net)

  Things didn't pan out too well between Mbah and UP, as Mbah ended up riding the pine during his last season as an Iskolar, and UP would still end up at the bottom of the pit during his stay in Diliman. As I said, the problem isn't with the import; it's with the school's basketball program. That's it. Just look at Sewa, Mammie and Abdul. Those guys didn't know how to play basketball when they arrived here, yet now, they are dominating the league. Even with an All Filipino cast, their roster for the past few years would have had no chance to compete for a Final Four spot. The same can be said for the roster this year, but I can see this team contending for the next few years with a relatively young breed of players coming in for bigger roles in Kyles Lao, Paul Desiderio, Kyle Suarez, Andre Paras, and who knows, the other Paras might just join his father's alma mater as well.

7th place: Adamson Soaring Falcons
Projected Starting Five: Julkipli - Cruz - Rios - Cabrera - Brondial
  Based on the depth chart that I got from Wikipedia (great source, huh?), the only center that they have is Sewa. And, since Sewa won't be in their roster for this version of our Power Rankings, Adamson has no pure center. That pretty much leaves a huge hole in Adamson's front line. The worst part is that, Roider Cabrera is forced to play the 4, and he's a natural gunner of a 3.

Without Sewa in the fold, Rodney Brondial is back at the 5 spot.
(credits to sir Marlon Bernabe)

   Without Sewa, the defense will be focused on the perimeter, since most of Adamson's points will come from Roider and Jericho Cruz shooting threes from the outside. Since Brondial isn't exactly the best of post players, plus Roider BANG and Cruz aren't the most consistent of shooters, expect a cluttered offense for Adamson.

  Basically, an Adamson without Sewa is the Adamson of Season 75 minus Eric Camson.

6th place: FEU Tamaraws
Projected Starting Five: Romeo - Tolomia/Garcia - Pogoy - Belo - Cruz
  The loss of Christian Sentcheu and Anthony Hargrove leaves FEU without a Center, so I decided to put their next best big man in the 5 position; Carl Bryan Cruz. Cruz isn't exactly a center, and when you think about it he's more of a stretch 4. Mac Belo is not that good of a banger and he isn't exactly a guy who has post moves. In short, FEU has no fire power in the inside, and that will be the cause of their doom.

Carl Bryan Cruz will have his work cut out for him without
Hargrove and Sentcheu.
(credits to uaapsports.studio23.tv)

  You could say, "but FEU can stretch the floor by using their outside shooting!". Well, how will they stretch the floor if Carl Bryan Cruz, their center also has to shoot three pointers in order to stretch the floor? That pretty much makes the offensive set look like this: Romeo, Garcia/Tolomia, Pogoy and Cruz will be outside looking to shoot threes or mid range jumpers. Belo is left inside. So logically, the defense will just play one on one with that. Ball screens? Teams with loads of length (La Salle, UST, Ateneo to SOME extent) can easily disrupt jumpers by just jumping up and raising their arms. As simple as that.

5th place: UE Red Warriors
Projected Starting Five: Sumang - Casajeros - Noble - Santos - Javier

Sumang will pretty much be on his own without Mammie.
(credits to sports.inquirer.net)

  Even without Charles Mammie, UE is actually a pretty deep team that can contend for a Final Four spot. But why did I decide to place them as 5th? Roi Sumang. Believe it or not, yes, Roi Sumang. Why? Well, Roi Sumang is the center of their offense, and logically, he will also be the one opposing teams will focus on containing. No other player in the team can create as good as Sumang, and that can lead to their doom. Other than that though, their a pretty good team, but the thing is, there are 4 other teams better than them.

4th place: NU Bulldogs
Projected Starting Five: Alolino - Parks - Alejandro - Javillionar - Rosario

Without Mbe, NU's offense in the paint dwindles.
(credits to pinoyexchange.com)

  I'll be quick with NU. Simply put; An NU without either Parks or Mbe is an NU that aren't title contenders. Remember the Ateneo game? Ray Ray Parks wasn't the MAIN reason why NU won. He was a reason, yes, but he wasn't the most important factor for their victory. It was Mbe. His size proved to be too much for Ateneo, and when Parks would get double teamed on drives, he would have Mbe hanging around in the paint read to receive the pass. Rosario simply does not bring the same impact an Emmanuel Mbe brings. Without Mbe, the defense will focus only on Parks, and since Parks doesn't have a buddy who can help him with the scoring load, he'll be forced to do it all.

3rd place: UST Growling Tigers
Projected Starting Five: Daquioag - Teng - Ferrer - Mariano - Pe
  I really had a tough time determining the 2 and 3 spots (The #1 spot is pretty obvious, actually), but it had to come down to me choosing UST for the 3rd spot. What was the factor with my decision? Ironically enough, the front court. Just like NU, the loss of Abdul will greatly affect the production of the team in the offensive end, since Paolo Pe isn't exactly the best offensive weapon in the paint. The difference between NU and UST?

Jeric Teng is undoubtedly the heart and soul of UST.
(credits to Juan Benjamin Janeo)

  They have Teng, Ferrer and Mariano, 3 PBA ready players. Jeric Teng will always find ways to bail out the Growling Tigers if needed during the clutch. Kevin Ferrer is slowly turning into a more potent offensive weapon, and in addition to his improving offensive repertoire, is his elite perimeter defense. Aljon Mariano is simply a match up problem because of he versatility. It's simple really; where the Big 3 of UST goes is where UST will also go.

2nd place: Ateneo Blue Eagles
Projected Starting Five: Tiongson - Ravena - Buenafe - Newsome - Golla
   There are only three teams in the UAAP who won't have any significant change in terms of the starting line ups. Those teams are UP, Ateneo and the top team for our Power Rankings. Despite this though, Ateneo will be the greatest benefactors from this "rule" of ours.

Poy Erram might just be the player who will benefit the most
from this rule among the Ateneans.
(credits to sir Philip Sison)

  Let me explain by using Ateneo's past few assignments as examples. As mentioned above, the primary reason NU won against Ateneo was Emmanuel Mbe's presence. Against FEU, Anthony Hargrove and Christian Sentcheu's presence helped significantly in freeing up shooters such as Romeo, Tolomia and Garcia. Against Adamson, they struggled in defending Ingrid Sewa while he was on the floor. Against UE, well, Charles Mammie pretty much ate Ateneo's front court alive. They lost to NU by 10 points. Mbe had 15 points and 15 rebounds.  They lost against FEU by 4 points in OT. Hargrove had 8 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks. They won against Adamson, although Sewa had limited minutes due to an injury. They lost against UE by 4. Mammie had 20 points and 23 rebounds. Enough said.

1st Place: La Salle Green Archers

Projected Starting Five: Torres - Vosotros - Teng - Perkins - Torres

  La Salle doesn't really benefit from the "rule" too much since they're a top team even with the imports in the league. Sure the bigs can dominate even more and Jeron Teng will probably put up even better numbers, but other than that, there's not much to be excited about. Point is, La Salle is stacked and loaded. No changes are needed to be made with their roster, because quite simply, they have the deepest squad in the league at this point.

Torres and Van Opstal in one team? With or without imports,
teams should be scared.
(credits to goarchers.com)

Disclaimer: I am in no way TOTALLY against the participation of imports in the UAAP. I simply thought of this little idea after Ateneo lost against UE, where Charles Mammie did most of the damage during the said match up.