Former Tigers, Tamaraws weigh in on UST-FEU duel

Former stars of this year’s UAAP men’s basketball finalists weighed in on the best-of-three title showdown between University of Santo Tomas and Far Eastern University.

Jervy Cruz, who is part of UST’s last championship run in 2006, made a short but clear finals prediction.

Cruz and fellow Growling Tiger Allein Maliksi believe UST will win the title via sweep.

“[It will be] 2-0 for UST,” said Cruz, who is now with Barangay Ginebra in the PBA.

“UST is in a good momentum and the team is in a great rhythm. They seemed to have really gotten a good grasp of their system and on how they want to play,” said Maliksi, the Star Hotshots swingman. “They have the ability to control the game and I see them winning, 2-0.”

The Tigers swept the Tamaraws in the elimination round but former standouts Jonas Villanueva and Aldrech Ramos see FEU flipping the script in the finals.

Villanueva and Ramos, however, know that beating UST twice, something that no other team in Season 78 were able to do, won’t be easy.

“UST is a strong team and they also have the finals experience like FEU last year. It’s going to be a close game but for me, FEU will win in two games,” said NLEX guard Jonas Villanueva. “But the game will be decided by just a point or two.”

“Hopefully, FEU will win the championship in two games. It’s going to be hard but I think they are deserving to win because of the way they played all season,” said Ramos, the Mahindra forward.

Former FEU star guard Mark Barroca thinks the team that gets the headstart will win.

“These are two hungry teams and they are evenly-matched from their starters to their bench. It’s going to be a really tight battle,” said Barroca, who is now with the Hotshots.

The Tamaraws have a longer championship drought. They haven’t won a crown since 2005 when San Miguel Beer star Arwind Santos was still wearing the school’s colors.

Ping Exciminiano, the Alaska guard, thinks that hunger will drive FEU to the title.

“The only thing I am sure of is FEU will play all out because it’s been a long time since we won a championship.”

UST has FEU’s number in the elimination round and Dylan Ababou, a 2009 UAAP MVP and also a key member of the Tigers’ 2006 title run, thinks the trend will continue.

“I think UST will win because they’ve beaten FEU twice in the eliminations. But it promises to be a great series and it will go down to a Game 3,” the Talk ‘N Text forward said.

With the series expected to go the distance with each game promising to go down-the-wire, Cyrus Baguio, the Tigers’ star at the beginning of the 2000s, thinks it will boil down to desire.

“The team which has the bigger heart and which wants it more will win. I can’t say which team but my heart is with UST,” the Aces’ guard said.