UST Growling Tigers (8 - 6) def. Ateneo Blue Eagles (7 - 7) 82 - 74 Hey, there's still him next year, right? (credits to uaapsports.studio23.tv)    Instead of going through the usual motions of recapping the games, I'll be doing a slight features article concerning Ateneo and UST.   When the final buzzer ended, I honestly wanted to cry. That was a painful loss for my Blue Eagles. Sure I support UST, but no matter what happens, Ateneo pa rin susuportahan ko. Yet, eventually I started to gather my feelings, and I thought, hey, I think teams should actually be worried of Ateneo next year. And, I also thought about it. NU, FEU and DLSU should be worried about UST come the Final Four. REAL WORRIED.

     Well, I didn't expect to return at this time.      I'll be honest, I was eyeing to return last week, but ACTUAL basketball actually stopped me from doing so. In short, I've been playing more with my buddies from #K2015, and that's taken up my time from writing about UAAP basketball. Well I've found time, so here I am writing about controversy. Great way to return, aye? Coach Bo has been subject to much controversy over the past few days. (credits to sir Roy Afable)

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.   Peo...

  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.

      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.

    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 my second to the last post of this series, I will be analyzing the forever underdogs; the UST Growling Tigers.

       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).   We'll be analyzing the seemingly confusing De La Salle Green Archers.

     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).   Now, we will be analyzing the team tagged as favorites, the NU Bulldogs.

    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).    Now, we'll be analyzing the much controversial FEU Tamaraws.

    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 this post, we'll be talking about the much improved Adamson Soaring Falcons.

    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).    The next team that we will be analyzing is the much hyped UE Red Warriors.

   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 ...

  The UAAP season is a week away, and the excitement surrounding the season rises each day that we come closer to June 29, the opening of Season 76.  I will start my coverage for the season by generating what I think are the most important question/s that surround each team as of this writing. For the next few days, I will be writing a preview for each team, and I will base the previews from the questions that I will generate. Before the previews though, I will post my preview and prediction for the upcoming MVP race. Let's get it started!