Scouting Report - #UAAP77 Week 1

(c) Sherwin Vardeleon

UAAP Season 77 is finally upon us! The opening weekend saw three blowouts and an intense clash between contenders FEU and La Salle. At this stage, all of those preseason predictions and rankings [I am guilty of doing one. Or two. Come on! Its part of my job!] are proven futile and should be thrown out of the window.

And with two playdates already done, lets take a quick look on the early achievers of this young collegiate basketball season and give credit to the boys who deserve it. Here we go!

WHAT YOU MISSED

July 12, 2014 - Saturday - Araneta

UE def. UP, 87-59.

FEU def. La Salle, 82-77.

July 13, 2014 - Sunday - Araneta

Ateneo def. Adamson, 79-57.

NU def. UST, 59-40.

POWER RANKINGS

1. FEU (1-0)

Terrence who? RR who? The Tamaraws showed no signs of missing last year's star guards as Mike Tolomia, Mac Belo, and the returning Russel Escoto towed FEU to a hard-fought opening day upset win against the favored La Salle team.

2. NU (1-0)

It wasn't pretty, but the Bulldogs ushered in its post-Bobby Ray Parks era with a statement win versus their tormentors last season UST, blasting their rivals with ease in a total team effort.

3. UE (1-0)

"Thunder" Dan Alberto zapped UP with five treys to set the wheels in motion for the Red Warriors' trek to the Final Four. The bench production for UE allowed coach Derrick Pumaren to go easy on Roi Sumang's exposure in opening day.

4. ADMU (1-0)

Sign of things to come? Kiefer Ravena might just have opened Chapter 1 of his "Eff-You" season this year, torching the lowly Falcons and posterizing defenders not once, but twice. "Eff-You" indeed.

5. DLSU (0-1)

The Green Archers might be stunned with an opening day loss against FEU, but it just wasn't their game to win. Expect the defending champs to bounce back in their next game – against rivals Ateneo.

6. UST (0-1)

Its just not the same without coach Pido. That's not a dig towards new coach Bong dela Cruz, but in the Tigers' first outing, the runner-ups seemed to be discombobulated [Did I spell it right?] against a more ready NU squad. The good thing is its just their first game; the bad thing is that they have to get it fast.

7. ADU (0-1)

With 11 rookies, even coach Kenneth Duremdes didn't expect the mugging they would get from Ateneo in their opener. He hoped that they would at least compete, but the team's immaturity surfaced, forcing "Captain Marbel" to reassess his plans, even if it needs him to exit the dugout in the fourth quarter of the succeeding game.

8. UP (0-1)

I'll just let this meme do the talking.

(c) UAAP-NCAA Memes

MVP WATCH

(c) Sherwin Vardeleon

(weekly production/ averages in parentheses)

1. Mike Tolomia (23 points, 4/6 3PT FGs, 3 rebounds, 5 assists in W vs DLSU): The fourth-year guard made the most of his extended responsibility, bucking a slow first half and torching La Salle with 20 second half points, as the defending champs struggled to find an answer against the Tams in the endgame.

2. Kiefer Ravena (22 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals in W vs ADU): It was a statement game for the elder Ravena sibling as Kiefer really showed the way for Ateneo. It also won't hurt that he had two slam dunks which sent Mika Reyes wildly cheering from her seat.

(c) Sherwin Vardeleon

3. Mac Belo (20 points, 4 rebounds in W vs DLSU): Belo has shown tremendous improvements from his days in the Sinag Pilipinas squad, and the forward has been a workhorse in the paint against taller counterparts.

(c) Sherwin Vardeleon

4. Dan Alberto (15 points, 5/6 3PT FGs, 2 assists in W vs UP): Whoever said that Dan Alberto will be an early season MVP candidate, please raise your hands. Nobody? Exactly.

(c) Sherwin Vardeleon

5. Gelo Alolino (13 points, 6/10 FGs, 3 rebounds, 3 steals in W vs UST): It all starts with Alolino, as the NU playmaker anchored the all-around assault for the Bulldogs in exorcising the demons of their bitter UST losses last season.

BEST FIVE

G - Mike Tolomia (FEU)

G - Kiefer Ravena (ADMU)

F - Mac Belo (FEU)

F - Russel Escoto (FEU)

C - Troy Rosario (NU)

ROOKIE WATCH

(c) spin.ph/ UAAP-NCAA memes

(weekly production/ averages in parentheses)

1. Ivan Villanueva (15 points, 6/9 FGs, 9 rebounds in L vs ADMU): Extra Rice Jr.? The former Letran Squire showed his soft shooting touch even as the Falcons struggled in its first game of the season.

2. Arvin Tolentino (12 points, 2/6 3PT FGs, 5/12 FGs in W vs ADU): The ex-San Beda Red Cub lived up to his hype as he joined forces with Kiefer Ravena in the early Ateneo pullaway, draining threes amd setting the tone for the W.

3. Rev Diputado (8 points, 2/2 3PT FGs in W vs UST): Diputado, a former Bullpup, showed that his spot in coach Eric Altamirano's rotation is safe as he was solid in his time on the floor while Alolino is resting on the bench, drilling occasional threes while setting his teammates up in offense.

WHAT THEY SAID

"We're playing undersized. Si Carl Bryan Cruz nasa kili-kili na ni AVO. Sacrifice." - Nash Racela on FEU's bigs matching up with La Salle's big men.

"Maganda ba or di maganda? Kung maganda, itutuloy namin. Kung ayaw nyo eh di palitan namin. Baka mas maging topic nyo pa yung outfit namin than the result." - Juno Sauler on the coaching staff's coat-and-tie uniforms

"I didn't do anything. I'm a good boy." - Kiefer Ravena on the unsportsmanlike foul whistled on him in their Adamson game.

WEEKLY NOTABLE

The La Salle coaching staff donned these uniforms which set the Twitter world ablaze last Saturday. What do you think?

UNI-WATCH

Just a quick word on the opening day uniforms.

The Nike jerseys (Ateneo, La Salle, FEU) are still the usual, but I observed one thing which bugs me until now. The school's names, regularly emblazoned on the shirt's chest, is now placed on a lower position, particularly the "tummy area." We believe that this space is alloted for the advertising patches, but isn't it too spacious for a certain patch to be placed in the center of the uniform?

Unless... they are pushing for a sponsor's logo to be placed above the school's name in the jerseys (which just further hammers a discreet belief on the league's commercialization, if its not yet that commercialized).

NU and UST, for me, had the best opening day uniforms.

Without any biases, I liked the loudness of the UST golden yellow uniform bearing a tiger print lining in both sides.

I also liked the simplicity of NU's white uniforms, going away from the usual "big U" NU logo and the one bearing a bulldog, and rather opting with the simple "National University" text upfront. Plus points for the style of the numbers at the back, which is the same font face of those of San Mig Coffee's. [Quick tangent: NU assistant coach Mon Jose also served as a video coordinator and later, an assistant coach for the Coffee Mixers during the 2014 PBA Governors' Cup.]

Still not digging UP's threads. Its nice that you have the word "Pilipinas" written on your jersey's front (with a little "Unibersidad ng" text written above it), but the white "bibs" that hug the maroon jersey just doesn't make the cut. And I'm using that term lightly. It really resembles an infant's bib, right?

The author covers the UAAP for Balls Channel, Solar Sports Desk, and occasionally, for Inquirer Libre.

The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the author's employers.

UAAP Season 77 Primer: FEU Tamaraws

Originally posted on the Balls Channel website

Head Coach: Raoul Cesar "Nash" Racela (2nd season)

Last Season: Third Place (10-4 in the eliminations)

                #3-seed in the Final Four, lost to La Salle in the Final Four

Key Losses: RR Garcia, Terrence Romeo, Gryann Mendoza, Christian Sentcheu, Joshua Aguilon, Jovannie Luz

Holdovers: Mike Tolomia, Mac Belo, Roger Pogoy, Carl Bryan Cruz, Anthony Hargrove, Achie Iñigo, Raymar Jose, Jeson Delfinado, Ron Dennison, Joel Lee Yu

Key Acquisitions: Russel Escoto (returnee), Francis Tamsi, Reeve Ugsang, Richard Escoto, Gus Denila, Jason David

The Coach Says:

“Our expectation is to be able to compete against the tougher teams. The end goal is to better the performance from last year, but we can’t look that far. So ang initial goal namin is to win games, get better and hopefully get to the Final Four. The key this year  will be our defense. When you lose 34 points from Terrence (Romeo) and RR (Garcia), mahirap na mag-depend on your offense. I know the capability of our team sa offense, but if we want to go far this year, it will be because of our defense.” – coach Nash Racela

The Players Say:

“Confident ako ngayon sa team kasi nagwo-work kami as a team. Alam naming sa lineup, di kami ganung kalakas, pero we’re working as a team at lalaban lang kami.” – Mike Tolomia, guard

“Walang masyadong pinagbago sa preparation namin. Basta ginagawa lang namin yung tama sa court, and focus sa defense. Yung ball movement namin, mas ikot yung bola, and yung transition namin, kailangan talagang tumakbo. Run-and-gun kami, at the same time, maganda yung defense namin dahil sa rotation.” – Mac Belo, forward

“We’re playing better team basketball. We lost Terrence and RR, who are our focal points on offense, but this year, we became more team oriented. We’re getting contributions from other players who didn’t play much last year.” – Anthony Hargrove, center

X-Factor: Achie Iñigo

The losses might hurt FEU, but Mike Tolomia has seamlessly took the lead role in the guard rotation. The question now is to who will be his backcourt tandem in the starting lineup.

Racela has already answered that by putting Iñigo in the point guard position, with Tolomia sliding to the two-guard role.

And in the preseason, the 22-year-old has proven himself worthy of the role, steadying the ship in numerous times in their tuneup games.

But again, the preseason is different from the UAAP, and for Iñigo, he said that he is ready for the challenge.

“Ready naman ako. Ngayon na nabigyan ako ng opportunity, I’ll just grab it,” he said. “Di ko naman pine-pressure yung sarili ko kahit na mabigat yung role na nawala sa amin. Kailangan lang i-fill yung spot na binakante nila, help my teammates improve, at gawin yung mga pinapagawa ni coach especially sa defense, executing plays, dishing assists, and grabbing rebounds.”

Prognosis:

Most teams go on a massive rebuilding stage when they lose two or three of their key players. FEU is not one of those teams.

Racela has been vocal in saying that the team has started its massive retooling the moment Romeo and Garcia took their mettle to the pros, and so far, after numerous tournaments, the Tamaraws are more than ready to start the season.

The FEU frontline will get a big boost from Mac Belo will be coming with a deep international experience after suiting up for Sinag Pilipinas last SEA Games. Still upfront for the Tamaraws are Hargrove, Carl Bryan Cruz, Raymar Jose, and the return of Russel Escoto.

Fourth-year forward RR Pogoy is also looking for a breakout season, as Racela has really preached the importance of sharing the ball in his squad’s dribble-drive offensive system.

FEU caught everybody off guard last season with a first round sweep, but the Tamaraws fizzled out as the season went on.

This time, they hope that they already learned from the mistakes of last year and sustain their winning momentum all season long.

If there’s one positive thing the departure of FEU’s former star guards has brought upon to the team, it is the team has bonded more, and the absence of a go-to guy would really be a big weapon for the Tamaraws, as Racela hopes that his 16 King Tamaraws can once again bring the trophy back to their lair.

*****

UAAP Previews: Adamson | Ateneo | La Salle | FEU | NU | UE | UP | UST