UAAP Final Four guaranteed
By Anthony Suntay, For Yahoo! Southeast Asia Monday August 16, 2010 03:48 am PDT
FEU's first loss of Season 73 may even the Final Four playing field, but Court Expert Anthony Suntay thinks this setback could lay the Tamaraws' road map to a championship season.
The 73rd season of the UAAP will now have a Final Four.
This came about immediately following Far Eastern University's (FEU) 63-64 defeat at the hands of the dangerous Adamson University Falcons the other day.
Whether they wanted to admit it or not, FEU was looking forward to sweeping the elimination round, thus removing the need for a Final Four match-up. In this scenario, they would have automatically gotten the first finals slot and had to just wait for the other teams to slug it out for the right to meet them.
But all that is now lost.
After absorbing their first defeat, the team can now just concentrate on making sure they finish in the top two positions, to avail of the twice-to-beat advantage, and then target the championship while in the finals.
The league instituted the format of giving an automatic finals slot to the team that sweeps the competition in the elimination round as an incentive for teams to dominate as much as they can, and definitely this was the initial target of the Tamaraws.
It was a very surprising loss for the Tams since the turnaround literally caught everybody by surprise.
In the third quarter, FEU shot the lights out of the gym, with a percentage around the 80-percent mark. That is absolutely incredible, since they weren't just attempting lay-ups.
But the law of averages must have caught up with them, because in the pay-off period – the fourth quarter – they missed basically all their field goals. except for the lay-up of Aldrech Ramos in the final seconds, off the pass from RR Garcia. Before that juncture, they were about 0-8 from the field, with all their points coming off free throws.
Credit has got to go to the suffocating defense throw by Adamson, though I also believe that FEU threw up some hurried shots in the final period as well.
Coach Leo Austria was very pleased with the boys' performance, since prior to this game, his boys were always criticized for not being able to finish games.
"This is a big statement for us. Our players are slowly maturing and gaining confidence. Beating FEU is not easy. With this win, the boys now know they can beat anybody," he said after the game.
So this win will definitely help propel Adamson to greater heights.
Now on the other side of the coin, what does this do to the Tams?
One, I feel it relieves some of the pressure off their backs, since I truly believe they wanted the sweep.
Now they can just play loose, but it's important for them to continue to improve.
Second, though, and I think this is more important, is that it could create some doubt on their side, regarding their actual strength.
I really can't seem to put my finger on it, but the Tamaraws have really underachieved, not just in this season's campaign, but even last year.
Their roster is stacked with talent and they should be blowing most of the teams away, but they aren't doing that.
Last year, they had an excuse. They benched star guard Mark Barroca for unconfirmed reasons, and this void ultimately led to their downfall.
This year, they still have tremendous talent, and they now know what they have with regard to their roster.
There are no more surprises, but they still are not reaching the level they are expected to attain.
The coaching staff will need to look into this immediately, because now there will be no more room for excuses.
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The 73rd season of the UAAP will now have a Final Four.
This came about immediately following Far Eastern University's (FEU) 63-64 defeat at the hands of the dangerous Adamson University Falcons the other day.
Whether they wanted to admit it or not, FEU was looking forward to sweeping the elimination round, thus removing the need for a Final Four match-up. In this scenario, they would have automatically gotten the first finals slot and had to just wait for the other teams to slug it out for the right to meet them.
But all that is now lost.
After absorbing their first defeat, the team can now just concentrate on making sure they finish in the top two positions, to avail of the twice-to-beat advantage, and then target the championship while in the finals.
The league instituted the format of giving an automatic finals slot to the team that sweeps the competition in the elimination round as an incentive for teams to dominate as much as they can, and definitely this was the initial target of the Tamaraws.
It was a very surprising loss for the Tams since the turnaround literally caught everybody by surprise.
In the third quarter, FEU shot the lights out of the gym, with a percentage around the 80-percent mark. That is absolutely incredible, since they weren't just attempting lay-ups.
But the law of averages must have caught up with them, because in the pay-off period – the fourth quarter – they missed basically all their field goals. except for the lay-up of Aldrech Ramos in the final seconds, off the pass from RR Garcia. Before that juncture, they were about 0-8 from the field, with all their points coming off free throws.
Credit has got to go to the suffocating defense throw by Adamson, though I also believe that FEU threw up some hurried shots in the final period as well.
Coach Leo Austria was very pleased with the boys' performance, since prior to this game, his boys were always criticized for not being able to finish games.
"This is a big statement for us. Our players are slowly maturing and gaining confidence. Beating FEU is not easy. With this win, the boys now know they can beat anybody," he said after the game.
So this win will definitely help propel Adamson to greater heights.
Now on the other side of the coin, what does this do to the Tams?
One, I feel it relieves some of the pressure off their backs, since I truly believe they wanted the sweep.
Now they can just play loose, but it's important for them to continue to improve.
Second, though, and I think this is more important, is that it could create some doubt on their side, regarding their actual strength.
I really can't seem to put my finger on it, but the Tamaraws have really underachieved, not just in this season's campaign, but even last year.
Their roster is stacked with talent and they should be blowing most of the teams away, but they aren't doing that.
Last year, they had an excuse. They benched star guard Mark Barroca for unconfirmed reasons, and this void ultimately led to their downfall.
This year, they still have tremendous talent, and they now know what they have with regard to their roster.
There are no more surprises, but they still are not reaching the level they are expected to attain.
The coaching staff will need to look into this immediately, because now there will be no more room for excuses.
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