Humblebola

Hi Karl,

UAAP men’s basketball is back, and boy was it a fun opening Sunday. DLSU found a new gem in Joaquin Tovera who led the Green Archers with 22 points in a tense showdown against the NU Bulldogs. Tovera sure didn’t look like a rookie in that game, putting their offense on his back, giving them the needed production to win in a close game.

The NU Bulldogs look like they’re still adjusting to life after Enriquez and Figueroa. There were times that they strayed from their trademark grit and discipline which led to them sinking in a hole, which they promptly climbed out of when they remembered how to play their style of basketball.

Then there’s the Adamson-FEU game. Pasaol and company looked like they were going to go super saiyan and just outscore everyone early in the game. But Nash Racela had other plans, quite literally, lots of defensive plans thrown at Mo Konateh, Bautista and Pasaol to limit their production as the game went on. Adamson’s defense still remains sharp as ever, but recent additions of Precious Jonah and Maht Edding provide much needed offensive production to fill the Manzano-sized hole in this team.

Then again it’s not the first time the Soaring Falcons have had to fill a player-sized hole. Previously it was a Lastimosa-sized hole, they got by and adapted without too much drop off. No reason this season should be any different. No use lamenting what could have been, the only thing that matters is now.

But what’s this I hear about you predicting a four-win season for the Falcons? You should have known by now that the boys in blue love proving those kinds of predictions wrong (just ask Flever). In case you’re right, though, at least I’ll have three more wins to look forward to this season, and that ain’t so bad.

Gilas Pilipinas had a whirlwind week. Playing in the Asian Games, Gilas Pilipinas split their first two assignments losing by 4 to Bahrain, but exacting a 31-point bounceback win against Kazakhstan. That big point cushion might just be what Gilas needs to make it to the quarterfinals, win or lose against China. Notably, against Bahrain, Calvin Oftana’s scoring ability went on full display, practically leading the charge for a Gilas team that was hard-pressed to find any offense. Against Kazakhstan the expected players took over, Bolick finally matching the hype around him, while Jerrick Ahanmisi did Jerrick Ahanmisi things, letting it rip from beyond the arc especially in the 4th, starting the three-point party that turned into the 31-point lead.

China is chomping at the bits to get back at Gilas Pilipinas for beating them in the last Asian Games. Unfortunately, this isn’t a run-it-back situation since key players from that defending Asian Games champion team aren’t back (read as: Justin Brownlee isn’t back). China won’t care, though. They still wear “Pilipinas” on the front, so Gilas has to be prepared for China to go full strength.

Going back to the topic of the UAAP coverage, did you catch the live broadcast on Sunday? Fans were thrilled when the UAAP announced that they would be broadcast live on YouTube, just like any respectable league.

What many didn’t expect was the difference in quality for the YouTube broadcast. One notable difference was that it seemed like there was no ambient sound. All people could hear were the commentators and the jarringly loud sound effects for the promotional segments. These issues were not present in the live broadcast of Cignal’s proprietary app. They even had different commentators for each broadcast. Perhaps it’s just a matter of growing pains in managing a separate broadcast, maybe someone forgot to plug in the ambient noise microphone or something, and it’s definitely not a deliberate decision by the powers-that-be to deliver an inferior product for the sake of pushing their proprietary app.

On the topic of introducing changes this season, Commissioner Jai Reyes was reported to be continuing on his FIBA-ification of the UAAP, adding more emphasis on bench decorum this time. I highly support this move, seeing as the end goal of most basketball athletes is to play in FIBA tournaments, it’s high time they got used to the standards used in FIBA. Although it bears reiterating, when people say FIBA “standard” it’s not meant to be used in the “good” or “bad” term or that anything that isn’t in accordance with their “standard” is automatically inferior (or superior), but just that those are the chosen practices by that one specific organization that just so happens to govern how basketball is played on a global scale.

The common misconception is that aligning with FIBA standard automatically makes officiating better, more accurate, faster or whatever standards fans have made up in their head that officiating ought to be. Instead aligning with FIBA standards just means they follow the rules, guidebooks, interpretations, principles and philosophies. Accuracy of calls is a different matter, one which the Commissioner put emphasis on last season.

These are good moves as what better place to introduce industry standards to a group of young, learning people, than in college? Like anything, there will be an adjustment curve, so as fans, we can at least know there’s something being done about it.

Excited to see Ateneo’s first game in the Louie Alas era on Wednesday.

See you at the games.

Yours,

Toby Pavon