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NCAA SEASON 85 has, not surprisingly, turned out to be one of the most memorable to date for the obvious reasons, expected whipping boys and shocking storybook ending. After a long, record-breaking 96-game season, a final look at the year, both in song and word, wouldn’t hurt at all.

Part I delves into the bottom five teams in this season’s campaign.

Angeles University Foundation (2-16)

Song of their season: Madapaka by Parokya ni Edgar
Moment of the year: Losing 15 straight games, 14 of them by double-digits
Quote of the year: “May ibubuga pa pala. Basta nandun yung effort, kaya naman eh.” – Coach Eric Gascon after the season-ending win against Perpertual Help.

Nobody in heaven’s name expected the Great Danes to do well this season, although no one also expected them to be this bad. AUF lost to Mapua by 38, San Sebastian by 32, and Letran by 30 – and that was just in the first round. Man, was this team bad or what?

With only trigger-happy Limmuel Manarang and Patrick Musni the key cogs leaving the team after the season, there’s hope that the boys from MacArthur Highway can find their groove next season, should they still play NCAA ball. Being a guest team, that would all depend on the set-up for next year. While the troika of Matthew Carney, Aaron Santos and Guian Fuertez showed up on some afternoons, the Danes just didn’t have any bite in them. Want more proof? There’s a lot to choose from, but here’s one: Giving up 89 points a game, in a 40-minute game (not 48), is just darn ugly.

University of Perpetual Help System Dalta (3-15)

Song of their season: Huwag Mo Nang Itanong by The Eraseheads
Moment of the year: Beating Mapua, 72-71 in its first round encounter after trailing by as many as eight points with three minutes left
Quote of the year: “Well, this season like I said even from the start we didn’t really expect to win games especially with the lineup that I inherited…In less than a week, I’m going to start building up my team for next year. We are already going to prepare as early as that for next season.” – Coach Boris Aldeguer in a postgame interview after his team’s 67-59 second round loss to St. Benilde.

Take Aldeguer’s word for it. This year wasn’t going to be fun. To begin with, he lost combo guard Ronald Reyes to an ACL injury, then watched Cebuano playmaker Franz Dysam and high-flying Jonathan Belorio bolt for Letran. Sure, his Altas lost to AUF, which is the equivalent of committing a mortal sin in the NCAA. But what really killed Perpetual Help was the lack of support from the second-stringers.

Raffy Ynion, as expected, put in the numbers, while Chris Elopre was one of the league’s pleasant surprises. Besides them, nobody else was consistent. Nathaniel Salanga had a not-so-memorable final year, Robin Roño was like, well, Robin to Batman albeit not everyday and JM Sicat thought the season ended on August 12 [Where, against EAC, he exploded for 18 points. He then went on to score a combined grand total of 27 points in his next nine games]. Don’t ask why the Altas were this bad; it’s written all over Las Piñas.

College of St. Benilde (6-12)

Song of their season: Nanghihinayang by Jeremiah
Moment of the year: Winning their first two games for the second straight year, only to miss out on the Final Four for the seventh consecutive season.
Quote of the year: “I think that’s a decent finish [tied for sixth] considering all the problems that we encountered throughout the season. We lost key players.” – Coach Richard del Rosario after their penultimate game of the year.

The Blazers fielded in arguably their best team since that last Final Four appearance in 2002. While that isn’t really saying much since “main” hordes the more talented kids, CSB was truly one of the most disappointing teams of Season 85. The Taft outfit was pretty good when they were intact, as evidenced by that triple-overtime thriller of a win over Arellano where a guy named Jeff Morial exploded for 31 points.

Morial was one of three Blazers “lost” during the season. After going 0-for-6 in 31 minutes in St. Benilde’s rematch with Arellano, he was never to be seen again. The official line was that he, along with Ilie Johnston and Chuck Dalanon, were saddled with injuries. Whatever the reason(s) is (are), it’s just a pity that a pretty good team like CSB played pretty bad basketball. And of course, another bad season gives both the alumni and student body yet another reason not to watch Blazer ball.

Emilio Aguinaldo College (6-12)

Song of their season: Hallelujah by Bamboo
Moment of the year: The Generals’ 86-81 win over old UCAA and NCRAA foe Arellano, which served as payback for their first round loss.
Quote of the year: “Beating the big teams is what inspires us to play basketball.” – Coach Nomar Isla in a pregame talk before facing San Beda in round one of the eliminations. Forty minutes later, EAC lost by 31.

After beginning the year 0-4, including that mortal sin of a loss to AUF, things looked shaky in the red half of San Marcelino. But if there’s anything Isla is good at, it’s motivating his players. That was on display as the debuting Generals won five of their final seven games while giving squads like Letran and San Sebastian a serious scare.

EAC has a lot more reason to praise the high heavens since only Ruel Jabaybay will be leaving the squad after the season. So, that’s more Argel Mendoza for all you saluting-during-the-alma-mater-hymn folks. Or, shall we say, less? Watch out for Jeffrey Lapitan, Neil Tuazon and another scoring machine in Roy Villegas next year.

Mapua Institute of Technology (6-12)

Song of their season: Hari Ng Sablay by Sugarfree
Moment(s) of the year: Losing six games by seven points or less
Quote of the year: “It looked like a habit for us to lose in the endgame but we learned a lot from those losses.” – Coach Chito Victolero after snapping a school-record 10-game losing skid.

You sure did, Chito. The Cardinals’ season can be divided into two: The first 13 games, which saw them go 1-12 (with the six close defeats mentioned all happening in that time span), and the last five games, all of which were won quite convincingly.

Lest be called the Adamson Falcons of the NCAA for its hard luck and late-game blunders, Mapua has to be given credit for pulling through in the end. Despite being a veteran-laden squad, a lot of those so-called veterans (see Macky Acosta, Paul Cinco, Erwin Cornejo and Rodel Ranises) never had the chance to play during former coach Leo Isaac’s tenure. This may partly explain the mishaps early on, but a couple of better breaks could have had the Cards hunting for a Final Four berth. At least, they nab sixth place and the PCCL wildcard berth via the quotient system. Yes, that good old silver lining.

Posted in Columns, Postgame