THE LAW of averages finally caught up with pretournament favorite Far Eastern University in the 73rd season of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines men’s basketball tournament.
Riding an unbeaten 7-0 record, the rampaging FEU Tamaraws finally crashed down to earth, losing 63-64 to the never-say-die Adamson U Falcons on a last-second putback by Eric Camson last Thursday at the Big Dome.
Still, Adamson coach Leo Austria admitted in a postgame interview that “it would be difficult to win this year’s UAAP cage crown because all teams are competitive now. So, the mental approach to the game is what we’re trying to improve. As you can see, we’re slowly maturing as a team.”
Added the soft-spoken mentor: “The past season, we were always criticized for collapsing in the endgame. The opposite is happening now.”
Thursday’s narrow victory was Adamson’s first over FEU in 17 games since July 2002.
Despite a miserable year in 2009 when Adamson finished fifth and barely missed the Final Four by just an average of 5.2 points, diehard followers of the Soaring Falcons are optimistic they’d make it this time around.
For the record, Adamson won its only UAAP men’s basketball title way back in 1977. It also made its last and only Final Four appearance (since the league instituted it in 1994) in 2006, with Austria at the helm.
This year, I expect better from Austria. Adamson’s top-rated defense is complemented by a flashy offense anchored on Alex Nuyles, Eric Camson, Jerick Cañada, Janus Lozada, Roider Cabrera and 6-foot-6 Kenyan center Lionel Manyara.
* * *
Did you know that before the outbreak of World War II, the venerable Leo Prieto, the late PBA commissioner, national team coach (to the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, where RP placed a respectable 12th) and longtime mentor of the Elizalde-owned Yco Painters, played for the FEU Tamaraws?
According to sports historian and former Philippine Olympic Committee president Col. Julian Malonso (ret.), Prieto’s teammates included Jesus Marzan, Antonio Carillo, Alberto Aldeguer, Niño Ramirez, Carlos de Leon and Alfredo Peñalosa. Their coach was Jose P. Rocha, who later became FEU’s physical director.
* * *
An original member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which was founded in 1924, FEU bolted the NCAA to join the rival University Athletic Association of the Philippines in 1938, the year FEU won the inaugural UAAP men’s basketball title.
Aside from basketball, FEU is also well respected and recognized as a superpower in other sports such as amateur boxing, swimming, track and field, baseball and football. (To be continued)
MOST READ
LATEST STORIES