UAAP Layup Lines - Season 76 week five

UAAP Layup Lines is a regular compilation of thoughts, musings and ponderings on the previous week's UAAP games. After last week's edition got rained out, we're back with talk on ADMU coach Bo Perasol, Terrence Romeo, Jeric Teng, and the Adamson Falcons


The line-up:

• Ateneo's coach Bo Perasol is finally getting it
• Clipped wings prevent Adamson Falcons from soaring
• In case you missed it - Terrence Romeo is the front-runner for MVP
• Ultimately, Dandan didn't make the grade for UP
• The last stand of cowboy Jeric Teng
• Layup Lines extra -  A hairy experience for RR Garcia and Terrence Romeo

Ateneo's coach Bo Perasol is finally getting it
by Carlo Pamintuan, sports desk editor, GMA News Online Sports

“I’m still trying to figure out how to coach in the collegiate level,” Bo Perasol, head coach of the Ateneo Blue Eagles, told me before the start of the UAAP season. “Sa PBA kasi makakapal na ang kalyo ng mga players. Kahit anong sigaw mo di na sila mabilis maapektuhan. Pero sa college, kung masigawan mo, baka magtampo na.”

Perasol struggled to get his groove early in the UAAP season, but after Ateneo’s win over Adamson last Sunday. It looks like he is finally getting the hang of it.

“I’d like them to experience the fact that we can’t just go through any other game without finishing it the right way in the fourth quarter,” Perasol said. “I was really holding back my timeouts because I want them to experience how it is to adjust doon sa situations na binibigay sa kanila.”

College hoops is so much more than winning and losing. Although the wins and the championships matter, what’s really important is the development of the young players. How, through college ball, they can be better equipped moving on, may it be on the court or off it.

Even if the Falcons went on a 16-0 run, Perasol allowed his players to sort things out. It was a ballsy call from his part, because as a rookie UAAP coach, and with the keys to one of the UAAP's biggest teams, Perasol is under a lot of pressure to win. With that one move, he showed everyone that the development of his players is of utmost importance to him.

In the end, that’s all you can ever ask from a college coach.


Clipped wings prevent Adamson Falcons from soaring
by Favian Pua, contributor, GMA News Online

The last victory of the Adamson Soaring Falcons came more than a month ago, a 68-66 escape from the National University Bulldogs last July 20. A lot has happened since then.

Gilias Pilipinas are headed to Spain for the 2014 FIBA World Cup. LeBron James and Kobe Bryant took Manila by storm, as did Tropical Storm Maring. Janet Lim-Napoles became a household name for all the wrong reasons, same with Miley Cyrus.

You get the idea. It has been a while since Adamson left the court with heads unbowed.  Now, they tread dangerously in UP Fighting Maroons territory.
 
The Falcons have been this year’s “paper” team, with names that generate intrigue and discussion, from Jericho Cruz’s ascension into the top-10 discussion, to Roider Cabrera’s irrational confidence, to Ingrid Sewa’s imposing presence. Unfortunately, things have not panned out because of sheer inconsistency, as there are times when Jansen Rios masquerades as the team’s best player on the floor.

This season's hosts have plummeted down the team standings. One month ago, the Falcons were making noise at 3-2, the coveted second spot and twice-to-beat advantage within claw’s reach. Now, they are at 3-7, a distant seventh in the league. Each defeat was supposed to serve as a learning opportunity. However, the Falcons failed to capitalize each time.

Early on, the Falcons' first three setbacks were winnable games.  First, Gian Abrigo got tagged with an egregiously controversial unsportsmanlike foul on Norbert Torres. Second, FEU's Terrence Romeo buried successive clutch treys that put enough breathing room between both teams. Third, Almond Vosotros sneakily found enough wiggle room to bury the dagger floater with 1.8 seconds remaining on the clock.

Three moments spelled the difference between a legitimate shot at victory and imminent defeat. Then, with their collective spirit at its lowest, the Falcons sleep-walked through a two-hour horror film loss to NU that could rival The Conjuring. And although the Falcons made a furious rally against the Ateneo Blue Eagles, they dug themselves in too big a hole to cause an upset.

Adamson could have easily been at 7-3, and we could have been discussing how the Falcons are the team that no one wants to play once the postseason goes underway.

Alas.


In case you missed it - Terrence Romeo is the front-runner for MVP
by Carla Lizardo, writer, Humblebola

When the news broke that RR Garcia earned himself a one-game suspension for accumulating two unsportsmanlike fouls, the big question on everyone's mind was "Will Terrence Romeo be able to handle the pressure of leading the Tamaraws to victory against the Red Warriors by himself?"

After an exciting and grueling match that went into double overtime, the answer, as it turned out, was "yes," yes Romeo can definitely put a team on his back and handle the pressure that comes with being "the guy."

Romeo logged 41 minutes of action, putting up 30 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals. That boosted his numbers to 19.8 points per game (1st in the UAAP), 5.8 rebounds, 3.8 (5th) assists, and 1.6 steals (1st). He also leads the league in field goals made, with 62. Because of that sort of production, one can make a compelling case that he's the best at his position right now in college hoops.

Romeo is actually in a unique place, compared to other MVP-worthy players, in that position-wise, the next best player on his squad, RR Garcia, actually plays the same position he does. That's different from the likes of Bobby Ray Parks and Emmanuel Mbe of NU, Roi Sumang and Charles Mammie of UE, and the troika of Kiefer Ravena, Ryan Buenafe and Chris Newsome of ADMU. Despite that though, if his team still enters the Final Four, it's all but likely that he'll be named the league's best.

Where the Tamaraws go will ultimately depend on where Romeo goes. It's no coincidence that Far Eastern's two losses have been where Romeo has played sub-par ball. If he continues to make difficult, but timely attempts, there's no reason to think FEU misses out on the Final Four again like last season.


Ultimately, Dandan didn't make the grade for UP
by Renee Fopalan, writer, GMA News Online Sports

Amidst the first stirring of last week's tropical storm, Dean Ronualdo Dizer of the UP College of Human Kinetics confirmed that Ricky Dandan was no longer head coach of the Fighting Maroons last Monday, following a 67-59 loss to the Ateneo Blue Eagles in their first game of round two.  

Rumors of the Maroons parting ways with coach Dandan sprouted August 17, Saturday, before GMA News Online confirmed his exit the next day, courtesy of multiple sources close to the situation. However, that evening, several reports came out that quoted Dean Dizer, who is also UP's UAAP board representative, saying that Dandan was still head coach.

That situation of course did not last long, and had it not been for the flooding and heavy rain, new head coach Rey Madrid would have had his coaching debut last Wednesday versus the UE Red Warriors, instead of Saturday versus the DLSU Green Archers.

In two and a half seasons, Dandan won three games in 36 tries, including none this season, for an eight percent winning rate. For most occupations, an eight percent rate of doing things right is atrocious. Doctors and lawyers would never find clients with such a rate. And I dare compare Dandan's job to professions so serious. After all, hopes, dreams, careers, and large amounts of money are injected each year to support the Maroons' UAAP campaign.

Players love coach Dandan because he gives them the freedom to create on the floor. Anybody would want that. It's a dream for most of his players, majority of whom transferred from teams that didn't give them a chance, and for those who shunned offers of second-string positions on loaded squads.

The problem though, is that it never translated into wins.

Last season, the Maroons boasted of eight players in their final year of eligibility, but they still managed to come out on top in just one game. This year, seven players are in their first UAAP season, but the problems are still the same: late-game meltdowns, a love of bad three-point attempts, and a porous defense, especially in the interior.

Quite frankly, the rebuilding tag has been slapped on to UP squads of old and new so much that it has stuck there perpetually. Permanently.

Perhaps Dandan and company were on the verge of figuring out how to win. Perhaps they weren't.

Perhaps the UP administration got tired of it.

Perhaps, coach Ricky forgot where he was. He was coaching for the best university in the country. The same one that demands only the best from its students and its teachers.

Perhaps UP remembered this.


The last stand of cowboy Jeric Teng
by Adrian Dy, senior sports desk editor, GMA News Online Sports

The UAAP doesn't have a formal "scoring champion" award, but if they did, I'm sure many would have tabbed Jeric Teng to win it at the start of the season.

The fifth-year UST Growling Tiger lost his point guard Jeric Fortuna due to graduation, and the preseason FilOil tourney gave people a glimpse of the role he was to play come the UAAP. Teng was to shoot, shoot often, and shoot without conscience.

Whenever Jeric Teng makes a three-pointer, he celebrates by cocking his fingers as if they were pistols, bang-bang-bang, fully embracing his gunslinger/cowboy persona. Shooting was what he did so impressively in the summer, beginning with a 31-point explosion versus DLSU, then compiling three 20-plus point games in a row, before unloading 27 markers against NCAA champions San Beda in the battle for third place. Come the UAAP, he was on his way to doing that anew, starting with a 23-point game in the season opener, followed by a 15-point effort.

Cowboys have always been depicted as honorable warriors, the American equivalent to samurai in Japanese culture. And so there's some irony that Teng was taken out by a blindside to his back by NU's Jeoffrey Javillonar, causing him to miss his team's next five games.

The Growling Tigers fans were finally able to welcome Teng back last Saturday, but it was a short-lived reunion, as this time, a hamstring injury sent him crashing to the ground after scoring just two markers. He missed the entire second half, but he will likely play in Wednesday's match, a must-win for the Tigers versus an also-slumping Adamson squad.

Many thought that the Tigers would be able to replicate their run to the Finals from last season, but as of writing, they're in sixth place, on a three-game skid, with only two wins since Teng's original injury. And as the number of games left in his collegiate career continues to dwindle, Teng knows that to keep it going just a little longer, he'll need to go out guns blazing, as his teammates have not been able to get it done without him.


Layup Lines extra - A hairy experience for RR Garcia and Terrence Romeo

Given FEU's recent struggles, we wondered if the Tamaraws would adopt collegiate basketball's "tradition" of teams bonding through shaved haircuts. This move was popularized by the DLSU Green Archers in the past (with head coach Franz Pumaren getting involved as well), and the Ateneo Blue Eagles recently did it after a 0-3 start to the season.

More recently, UE Red Warrior Roi Sumang got his hair trimmed, with his tweets declaring that he was going to get a hair cut, and the resulting picture, getting lots of social media traffic.

But back to FEU, which started the second round losing back-to-back games, and needing double overtime to dispatch Sumang's UE squad. RR Garcia's color-splashed locks and Terrence Romeo's spiky do are two iconic looks in the UAAP, so we couldn't help but try to picture the pair with shaved heads.

Enter Photoshop.


Before computer-assisterd hair cut.



After hair cut.

In our book though, the ultimate way to show that the two are getting together fine and dandy is to swap hair styles, and once again, Photoshop allowed us to see how that would look.


You're all welcome.