(Photo Credit: @dbuzzketball) Getting to see the NCAA Juniors Basketball Tournament get going just felt right. It's been a while ever since High School basketball was talked about in the country, so just seeing the top Juniors teams slug it out was refreshing. It just felt right. There was a buzz in the air which surrounded the Letran gym as San Beda and San Sebastian opened Juniors basketball action for this season. By all accounts, High School basketball was back. Fans expected usual High School basketball action. Fast-paced action between two young teams trying their best to run their respective systems. Once play started, that's exactly what we go. Action was incredibly fast. But we also saw some of the warts of High School basketball. The players playing are kids. For this go around, we saw some first game jitters get into players. When you look at the stat sheet, it's easy to let out a groan once you look at the percentage. Basketball was far from efficient...

(Photo Credit: Filoil Flying V Sports) Evan Nelle had a bad season last year. Even if he himself didn't admit it explicitly, you could see with the way he played and with his body language that he was not content with how he was performing. San Beda still managed to make it to the Finals, but Evan going MIA during the Finals didn't help with their chances of completing an 8-peat. It got even worse for Evan. After being named as practically a shoo-in in the SLAM Rising Stars Classic, he wasn't even considered in the all-star game. He was able to make it to the NBTC All-Star Game, but in the rankings made by coaches and analysts, the Red Cub was ranked 25th out of 26 players. From being one of the top prospects in High School Basketball, to an afterthought. Immediately, Nelle went to work. Agains the Ateneo Blue Eaglets, all that work showed. There weren't any drastic changes to his game or his body. He was still his usual lanky self, with some added muscle. N...

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...

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...