inboundpass.com - Covering Philippine college basketball / UAAP, NCAA, PCC

The first weekend of the UAAP was as exciting as people expected it to be. On opening day, FEU beat Adamson by a squeaker and UE beat a very inspired UST team.

The 2nd day was as exciting. I was asked by one of the readers of my previous article who I thought UP would beat and I said NU. Today it happened. UP to took the listless NU Bulldogs to the dog pound and got their first victory in 15 games, counting last season.

The much awaited La Salle – Ateneo game was also played today and it proved to be as exciting as had been expected. In my previous article, I had also said in one of my comments that Ateneo would beat La Salle twice during the double round robin. Especially in their first game, I felt Ateneo would win because they always start the season strong but end with a whimper. La Salle on the other hand, consistently peaks at the right time as was evidenced in Season 70 when

Ateneo won 3 out of 5 but lost the games that mattered. The game was great. There were spurts from both teams and numerous lead changes. Ateneo won and honestly, I felt they deserved it.

La Salle always starts slow and this season was no exception. What was so exasperating for La Salle was that they lost by 6 but missed 19 free throws. La Salle has perennially been a mediocre foul shooting team, but this was ridiculous.
The much awaited debut of the rookies for both schools was great to watch.

I think the rookies of La Salle played much better than the much touted rookies of Ateneo. Buenafe had his moments but so did Joshua Webb. In fact I think Webb got the better of Buenafe by getting into his head even causing him to shoot an air ball that Webb dared him to shoot.

Burke scored 4 points but was not impressive. La Salle’s Bagatsing outplayed Ateneo’s Salva and Maui Villanueva and LA Revilla had very productive minutes. Justin Chua did not play.

Ateneo’s size and experience was very obvious and it paid dividends. Now they have to win the games that matter and peak at the right time. But they can’t expect to win it all if this is the best game they can play. It was still a “Chris Tiu� show and when he has a bad game, can the others fill the void? In fact Chris Tiu got away with so many fouls and complaints to the referees that he ended with 1 foul. Maybe the “halo� he seems to make everyone believe he wears, makes the refs genuflect in front of him rather than blow their whistle.

After the victory, Ateneo celebrated as if they won the championship. Hey…it’s only the first game.
As for La Salle, I was impressed with the 12 man rotation that I saw. Even with Casio still not fully recovered, they brought Ateneo to the limit. I think this La Salle team will only get better.

Now the bad news!

In all my years of both playing (I played in the NCAA many years ago) and watching all levels of basketball, this is the first time I have ever seen an instance when a team was given 2 technical foul and possession even before the tip-off. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!

Right before the opening tip off, the Commissioner of the UAAP, not the referees, slapped a technical foul on La Salle because Coach Franz Pumaren was not wearing his ID. I guess Narvasa is not aware that Pumaren coaches La Salle and he just wanted to make sure that he was the real Franz Pumaren.

I wonder if this in the rule book. But in the UAAP, they make up the rules as they go along.

Then in the beginning of the 3rd quarter, Commissioner Narvasa again makes the T gesture with his hands, instructing the referees to call a technical on Ateneo Coach Norman Black. I would normally say turnaround is fair play, but I won’t because it is a travesty and I was appalled at why the Commissioner has become a 4th referee.

What was even stranger is why the referees had to keep going to the Commissioner in the course of the game. Was it to validate their calls or to be reprimanded for their terrible job or even to be given a crash course on officiating? If the referees are not well versed on the rules, then why have them officiate in the first place.

However, Commissioner Narvasa may still deserve the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he had his reasons. Maybe he wanted to make up for the ineptitude of the referees. If this were the case, I strongly suggest that the Commissioner sanction these officials and make it known to the public, so that we know that he is the Commissioner that everyone hoped he would be.

I am very concerned that what is looking to be a very competitive UAAP season, may be tainted with a lot controversy because of just extremely inefficient referees.

It was such a pity because it was game of 2 very good teams and the referees were horrendous. I am not saying that they were unfair to either team but just terrible as a whole.

TIDBITS:
The whole crowd at Araneta gave Pacman a long standing ovation. It just shows that every Filipino is proud of what he accomplished.

Tags: Ateneo, blue-eagles, Green-Archers, La-Salle, Manny-Pacquiao, The-Green-Mind, UAAP

Related posts

• San Beda, Ateneo open PCC Sweet 16 Round (14)
• UAAP All-Stars bag 2008 Bantay Bata title (52)
• Letran, USJ-R reach Sweet 16 Round (48)
• Alas wants to face the Red Lions in the Sweet 16 round (18)
• Jaguars, Knights debuted in the PCC Zonals with a Win (17)

Posted in The Green Mind