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It’s SJ Time
With 7:01 remaining in the 4th quarter, SJ Belangel converted on a pull-up jumper off pick and roll action. It was his first points of the contest, which shouldn’t be too noteworthy, right? Except, when you consider the context SJ’s in right now, it suddenly becomes something for fans of the Ateneo Blue Eagles.
The defending UAAP champions are in a transition period. While they retained Ivorian foreign student-athlete Ange Kouame, they did lose the likes of Thirdy Ravena, Matt Nieto, Mike Nieto, Adrian Wong, and Isaac Go. Most glaring among those names are Ravena and Ma. Nieto. Ateneo didn’t just lose two proud products of the Blue Eagles’ homegrown program. Their graduation also meant Ateneo no longer had seasoned veterans they could go to when the going got tough during games. They needed a go-to guy.
Analysts have begun to scoff at the notion of hero basketball, especially in today’s era of pace and space and team basketball, and why not? Basketball is a team sport and players connecting with one another is not only more efficient, but also more pleasing to the eyes. Five will always be greater than one.
Here’s the problem, however, with relying too much on team basketball or amazing, flowing sets; humans aren’t perfect! There will always come a time when players, as seasoned as they may be, won’t be able to run complicated action to get two points. That’s most evident during the clutch when the pressure amps up. Your mind shifts its gear from fifth to first. You can’t beat the traffic by just running over cars, right? That would be illegal. Thus, the importance of the go-to guy.
Sometimes, you need someone to direct you in the simplest of ways. It doesn’t have to be with a multitude of screens of curls or cuts to the rim. A simple pick and roll and dump to the post can do the trick, especially when all you need are two points. Ateneo had that for the last three years with Matt’s craft and Thirdy’s overall excellence. Who could they go to now?
During the NCAA-UAAP Challenge, SJ introduced himself as a potential option. It started versus San Beda when he torched the Red Lions for 25 points in just 18 minutes of playing time. Belangel then followed it up with a 26-point outburst against the UST Growling Tigers. The point totals were overwhelming, but what was particularly impressive was how he was getting these numbers.
He wasn’t just scoring off skip passes from Tyler or simple cuts to the rim. Belangel was straight up creating his own baskets. From being a shy kid scared of the Pumaren press, he transformed into a human flamethrower during the mini tournament. It didn’t matter if you’d hedge, double, or even put Soulemane Chabi Yo on him. He’d always find a way to get his buckets.
We suddenly were led to wonder, “Oh my god. So THIS is the guy who scored 99 points in Bacolod?” However, another question that needed answering was, “This isn’t too good to be true, right?”
It’s a reasonable question. First and foremost, teams just treat it as a preseason tournament. They don’t show their best stuff against their competition here. Second, the shots SJ was making were REALLY difficult. He’s not Steph Curry, right? There’s no way he was going to be shooting hesi pull-up jimbos against the out-stretched arms of foreign-student athletes for an entire season. He was bound to cool off. And the doubters couldn’t have been more correct.
During the first three quarters of the PCCL Finals, Belangel was atrocious. San Beda always kept their eye on him by sending multiple defenders to his face. SJ struggled. He committed several turnovers while missing the threes he was making in his previous games. We got our answer: It was too good to be true.
But then we go back to the 7:01 mark of the fourth quarter. SJ scores his first two points of the game off a mid-range jumper. Here’s the thing with go-to guys: their secret isn’t their efficiency. Instead, it lies in their ability to dig deep to simply find ways to get baskets. That’s what go-to guys are for. With the Blue Eagles facing a 45-41 deficit at that point, they badly needed someone to help lead them to victory. Maybe SJ could be that guy.
When SJ was in High School, his teammates coined a term inspired by Damian Lillard: SJ Time. It symbolized not only SJ’s penchant for taking over games but the team’s trust that their captain would always find a way to lead his team to victory. He wouldn’t always win games for them. But they couldn’t deny he had the heart and the guts to take responsibility for wins and more importantly, losses.
It was only his first basket of the game against San Beda. But at that moment, you kind of already knew. It was SJ Time.
SJ woke up right after that jumper. The funny thing was his offense wasn’t where things got started; it was his defense. He’s always been quite the pesky defender but he amped things up by being more aggressive in attacking passing lanes. He was making gambles, but these were smart gambles. One of them paid off, as he stole a pass from Ralph Penuela to get a fast-break bucket to tie the game at 45. We had ourselves a ball game.
Even though this was supposed to be just a preseason game, it didn’t feel like it in the Filoil Flying V Arena. San Beda clearly wanted to beat Ateneo; they hadn’t beaten the Blue Eagles in years! Ateneo, on the other hand, wanted to win back to back. Both teams wanted it, but Ateneo did one thing San Beda didn’t; someone brash enough to make the difficult decisions, just to wake his team up. That was SJ.
Belangel was both relentless and controlled in the way he handled the Blue Eagles during this juncture. On one play, he’d push the fast break and score a crazy and one. Afterward, he’d settle down his team, dump the ball to Will Navarro in the low block, and allow their offense to flow off that simple action. It was from that simplicity that Belangel was able to convert the three which gave Ateneo a 53-46 cushion with 2:40 remaining in the game.
The clock said the game wasn’t over. But Belangel’s demeanor told us otherwise. He had grabbed San Beda by its neck and chokeslammed it to hell. It was both harsh and magnificent.
The result was a championship for the Ateneo Blue Eagles and a masterful fourth-quarter performance by SJ. All in all, he scored 10 points during that seven-minute span versus the five San Beda scored during the entire fourth quarter.
It may not be everything because it is just treated as a preseason game. But we can’t deny that it was something. The entire PCCL tournament run of Ateneo was not only a showcase of the otherworldly talent of SJ Belangel, but it also served as a stage for him to tell the whole world: It’s SJ Time.
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Residency no more!
Finally, the bill filed to curb residency rules in athletics associations has been passed. It is now law and all that needs to be done is to publish it in the Official Gazette and two newspapers.
Student-athletes of the Philippines, rejoice! Your days of having to endure residency are over. Or are they?
Republic Act No. 10676 spearheaded by Senator Pia Cayetano, known as the Student-Athletes Protection Act aims to curb the commercialization of what are supposed to be amateur leagues.
[Read full text here]
However, it seems that the words used in this statute betray its policy.
SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. – Article XIV, Section 1 of the 1987 Constitution recognizes the role of the State to protect and promote the right of all the citizens to quality education at all levels, and to take appropriate steps to make such education accessible to all. Further, Section 19(1) of the same Article provides that the State shall promote physical education, sports programs and competitions alongside training for international competitions to foster self-discipline, teamwork and excellence for the attainment of a healthy and alert citizenry. Thus, the State shall recognize and uphold the rights of student-athletes to further hone their skills and abilities in their respective fields of amateur sports without neglecting their education and general well-being.
The law was specifically designed with two principles in mind- student rights and non-commercialization.
Unfortunately, when describing the regulations to be imposed upon residency rules, they immediately drop their tone in reference to non-Filipino students.
SEC. 4. Residency of Student-Athletes. – Without prejudice to the respective rules of athletic associations on student-athletes who are foreign imports, the following rules on residency shall be applied:
“Foreign imports”. It’s easy to pass this off as the Filipino-English slang in reference to foreign players in a mostly local team. Even Marcus Douthit and Andray Blatche who are technically Filipino citizens are still often referred to as “imports” when playing with Gilas. However, the lawmakers could have chosen a different word to refer to these athletes.
According to Webster’s Dictionary, an import is : something that is imported : a product brought into a country to be sold there. Now you can see where Congress slipped up. When they speak of Filipino student-athletes, Jerie Pingoy, Mikey Bartolome and the like, they are student-athletes, students first, whose rights must at all times be protected by the State. But when they talk about foreigners like Karim Abdul, Sam Ekwe or Kirk Long, suddenly they’re cattle, products brought into a country to be sold. So much for non-commercialization.
But this poor choice of words doesn’t really have any significant effect toward the implementation of this law. It does, however, give us a peek into the mind sets of the lawmakers who wrote this law, that they don’t see foreign students in the same light as Filipinos, that somehow having an all-Filipino team is a crutch.
So what does this new law actually mean for the UAAP?
It simply reduces the maximum number of residency years to one, if you are Filipino.
If you are a senior high school athlete of Adamson Highschool and want to play for Adamson University the following year, no league can force you to serve even a day of residency.
If you are the graduating high school MVP of Ateneo High School and want to bring your talents to San Marcelino and play for the Soaring Falcons, the UAAP cannot impose any form of residency rules on you.
If you are a high school student athlete of Letran Highschool which plays in the NCAA and decide that Adamson Highschool which is part of the UAAP, is the team you want to be in, you aren’t allowed to be forced to serve even a day of residency.
If you are a high school athlete of UP Highschool but suddenly feel that Adamson High school is a better fit to your playing style, at most you can be forced to serve one year of residency because both are UAAP member schools.
If you are a seven-foot basketball playing monster from the University of Visayas and want to play for Adamson University, the most you will sit out is a year.
If you are a Filipino playing for a high school in California and decide to come back home and suit up for the Soaring Falcons, there’s no need to wait and you can play straight away.
If you are a Filipino playing for De Paul University and choose to play for its congregation affiliate Adamson University, you’re welcome to do so, but you might be forced to serve a maximum of a year of residency.
Effectivity
Unfortunately, the law didn’t pass on time for Season 78. It was signed into law by President Aquino on Aug. 26, 2015. According to the New Civil Code, a law takes effect only 15 days after publication in the Official Gazette or a newspaper of national circulation. It was published in the Philippine Star on August 29, 2015. By this count it takes effect on September 14, 2015, well after the first UAAP games have been played. By then, UAAP would have reserved the right to disqualify student-athletes who have not met the residency requirements.
Any school-based athletic association yet to start its season will be bound by this law. For the UAAP, it’s likely that the residency rules will affect only the second semester events.
Fixed Problems
In my earlier assessment of the senate bill, I noticed the vagueness off the bill which might lead to undesired effects. Thankfully, some of them have been addressed.
The silence on its effectivity on foreign students would have included them in the coverage of this law, meaning foreign students fresh out of high school would have been able to come into school leagues without any sort of residency. Adding Sec. 4 excluded them from the coverage of the law and the respective school leagues have the discretion to add residency rules for them as they please.
Still Problematic Provisions
This omission of a catch-all phrase in Sec. 6 which reads:
SEC. 6. Commercialization of Student-Athletes – Schools shall not offer a student-athlete or the immediate family members benefits or incentives beyond those enumerated under Section 5 of this Act which are contrary to the nature of amateur sports and which may result in the commercialization of a student-athlete.
It still lets associations and other entities which are interested in the school, off the hook. An alumni association, a corporation, a non-school official can easily offer a student athlete the stars and the moon without repercussion.
This section also enumerates what can and cannot be offered as incentive to a student-athlete. It adds what cannot be offered to a student-athlete’s immediate family. This means that a school can “up the offer” to a student-athlete by providing tuition, board and lodging, allowances and all the other allowed benefits, to their kin, their siblings, relatives, parents, cousins, extended families and similar people, because it’s not an issue in the law, only the kinds of benefits are being regulated.
The UAAP has already caved in to the pressure brought by passing this law, allowing former NU Bullpup Hubert Cani to play for Ateneo after only one year of residency. The UAAP was not yet obliged to let him play. The law has not created any rights or obligations just yet. If you’re wondering why your school’s recruits aren’t suiting up despite serving a year of residency but Cani is being allowed to play, it’s because Ateneo had him in their submitted lineup and according to reports, if the UAAP still refused to let him play, they would file a TRO on them yet again. So unless your school had the foresight to include whoever recruit they had that would already be eligible in their lineup and had a TRO planned, you’ll have to wait another season to see him/her play.
Ultimately, the law simply ensures that the maximum down time for a Filipino student-athlete is one year. It acknowledges issues such as player piracy and over-commercialism which are likely to be addressed further in subsequent legislation. For many, it’s about time this law was made.
Fortunately for the likes of Hubert Cani and the thousands of student-athletes to come, that want to play for a different school in college, an MVP caliber athlete named Mikee Bartolome opted to swim for UP, because had she chosen any other school to swim for, Senator Cayetano might not have even considered authoring this law.
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