Humblebola

BY MARCUS ASINAS

Reading Time: 3 minutes

What’s up with the UP during finals and Araneta Coliseum? Is their signal weak too? Can Coach Topex break his personal championship curse as the two giants square off in a winner-take-all Game 3?

In game 1 of the UAAP Season 86 Finals, the UP Fighting Maroons clobbered the DLSU Green Archers. The Fighting Maroons banked on their physical defense, converted turnovers into points which fueled some hot shooting beyond the arc, en route to a UAAP record 30-point win leading many to think they were going to cruise to a second title in three years. This game was played in the Mall of Asia Arena. In game 2 the tables turned when the Green Archers returned the favor against UP in a 22-point. It was raining 3s in Araneta Coliseum when Francis Escandor started a run followed by Joshua David and a late game-sealing three-pointer of CJ Austria. 

These UAAP Finals are getting more exciting with neither team giving an inch. It’s an all-or-nothing game on Wednesday as it will be a chess match for coaches but a bloody war for the players with each side reaching for every advantage they can find.

  The UP Fighting Maroons will have to break their “Araneta Coliseum curse” if they are to clinch a championship tomorrow night. They are 0-3 in Finals games played in the Big Dome since 2021. The “curse” started in game 2 of the UAAP Season 85 Finals. In the following game, the “curse” continued with UP failing to secure a back-to-back championship against the Koume-led Ateneo Blue Eagles. This season, given the depth of the lineup of the Fighting Maroons, a lot of people expected that they would have swept this series. Yet, the “curse” lived on with UP’s unable to generate offense from halfcourt sets, leading to an abysmal 3-point shooting percentage and several unlucky missed open shots.

Coach Topex Robinson is no stranger to collegiate basketball championships. He bagged the championship trophy as a player when he played for San Sebastian College-Recoletos during the late 90s. It’s quite a different story as a coach, the La Salle tactician is currently 0-2 in the Finals starting from his Lyceum coaching stint. In NCAA season 93, despite having a perfect record of 18-0 during the eliminations, the Perez-led LPU got swept by Bolick’s SBU. In the following season, they again made it to the Finals on to get swept again by the San Beda Red Lions. This season, is already an improvement over his previous Finals stints having already won a Finals game. The job’s not over though.

The big question is will the UP Fighting Maroons finally win their first-ever championship game at the Araneta Coliseum or will Coach Topex end his Finals losing streak since his LPU days? Whether curses are real or not, one of them has got to give.