This season (I forget what number, 75, 76, seventy-whatever, I just refer to it as 2013), the Ateneo de Manila University Blue Eagles are trying to secure their 6th-straight UAAP Men's Basketball championship.
Not one, not two, not three...You get the point. That's pretty damn impressive. I'm not going to wax poetic on this point because many others already have, and you're probably sick of it as well. Ateneo, good. Five in a row good.
What I'm here for is number six. Specifically, the fact that as of July 3, 2013, the possibility of the Blue Eagles raising another championship trophy is looking pretty bleak. No, I'm not saying this because of the fact as of their loss to FEU, they've started out the season 0-2. I've known (really, we've known) since the end of last season that our title defense would be doubly hard what with losing our entire big man rotation to graduation/eligibility rules (Greg Slaughter, Nico Salva, Justin Chua) AND more importantly, our head coach for the entire 5-year run, Fr. Norman Black. No, I'm pretty sure he has not taken the Sacrament of Holy Orders, but he deserves our utmost respect and reverence for being the architect of our championship run. Quite simply, we were going to lose too much to mount a true title defense and a serious quest for that sixth straight 'chip.
(This reminds me of the 2000-2001 Indiana Pacers. After making it to the finals the year before, Indiana lost/traded away it's starting point guard, power forward and center - Mark Jackson, Dale Davis and Rik Smits, respectively - and saw Larry Bird hang up his coach's hat. Sure they re-upped Reggie Miller and Austin Croshere, traded for the talented but young Jermaine O'Neal and kept most of the previous year's team intact, but you lose the people at those key positions and a repeat trip to the finals, let alone a winning season - Indiana made it to the playoffs that year as the 8th seed with an even 41-41 record - is not going to be as easy as it was before.)
But then, there were the whispers that the new players would be able to step-in and contribute right away. Bo Perasol was hired to takeover head coaching duties, he himself a decent replacement. Heck, they even beat La Salle in one of the preseason tournaments. May Ravena at Buenafe pa naman, kaya yan! ("We can still win, we still have Ravena and Buenafe!") And so, by the time the tournament was about to start, with UST, NU and even UE tagged as the favorites, every Atenean (including this writer) was thinking the same thing, "Why not us?"
Then the season started with a drubbing at the hands at Adamson. Eh, injured pa naman si Ravena! ("But Ravena played hurt!"). Call me crazy, but the fact that the team launched 33 three-point attempts and only hit SEVEN did not scream "We're missing Ravena." Then, in the second game against FEU, without Kiefer Ravena the remaining Eagles led by Ryan Buenfae and Chris Newsome tried valiantly to beat the Tamaraws. But late in the game, when Ateneo was scrambling, they went to a big man-less five, something that never happened during the five-peat. To me, it loudly confirmed what I had feared all along: that without a dominant big man in the middle (i.e. Slaughter), the team was going to get, um, slaughtered by the bigger squads (which is almost every team). What each championship team throughout the 5-peat had in common was Black and a superior front court. This team has neither and we're expecting them to win it all? For Ateneo to win it this year, they have to win in a way that we have never won before. Let that sink in first.
The main reasons Ateneo has won the last five tournaments won't be around this time. Oh but we still think you can win.
Of course, what are we going to say? It's not as if we could skip this year and come back with a stronger unit. This the hand we've been dealt. We're going to bluff our way to the top or lose.
And that brings me to my point. (I know, I know, it took a while.) In the Ateneo's school song, there's a line that goes: Win or lose, it's the school we choose. It's something you hear/see a lot when Ateneo loses, as if to validate the loss and say, it's okay, we're still Ateneo. We're still in this. We're still winning. It's the confidence that in victory or defeat, things will be alright.
But honestly? Losing will not be alright for this rabid, school-pride crazy community. We're going to hate losing. I'm going to doubly hate it if we don't win it all, and La Salle does. Because that's just the way we're wired. That's what competition does to you, and that's what success does to you. It makes you crave for that sweet, blissful feeling of relief that all you endured, all you had to sacrifice was worth it. It's something that once you're forced to give up, worse, to share with others, will utterly destroy you. And, so far, it looks like Ateneo will finally have to let others play with the trophy after owning it for the past five years.
It's not over yet though. (There it is again, that confident, can't-let-go attitude). Ateneo, despite it's relative lack of size and identity still boasts an impressive collection of talent led by Ravena, Buenafe and Newsome. At some point, they're going to have to come together and figure all this out. And what do they need to remedy? First of all, their ghastly offense. Oh my god, sometimes, they can't even get the ball past the three point arc. It's that bad. Without a dominant low post presence, they need to create a good-enough one. In the FEU game, Buenafe was trying to establish himself as a low-post presence, but it still led to a lot of three-point shots on kick-outs. Any team who goes zone against Ateneo is going to have an easy time collecting all those missed jumpers. This is where a healthy Ravena comes in and breathes new life into Ateneo's offense. With both he and Buenafe on the floor, teams can't just pack it in on one of them. It's important that Ravena recovers from his injury and reestablishes himself as the premier guard in the league. The bigs need to at least fool defenses into thinking that they're threats on offense. That means good spacing, proper timing on cuts and screens and making the most of their opportunities when they get them. Next, they need to shore up their defense to create more fastbreak opportunities. Small ball works best out in the open, not in halfcourt sets. They don't have to be a dominating defense, they just need to be disruptive and effective when the situation calls for it. Gang rebounding is also a must. Leak-outs must be kept to a minimum and all five players must commit first to securing the loose ball before sprinting down court.
Sounds simple enough right? I wish. Improve your offense and defense are nothing new, but in this case, the weight of expectation leaves little room for error. Ateneo needs to solve their problems soon lest they surrender their title before the end of the first round. It's still a long way to go, but Ateneo has a longer way to go still. Win or lose is a real thing, but in the end winning means everything.
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