NCAA Final 4 tips off

San Beda coach Boyet Fernandez had spent the day feeling anxious, unsure which team his defending champion Red Lions will face at the start of the Final Four on Friday.

“We did prepare for Perpetual [Help],” admitted Fernandez, whose team will enter the postseason as the top seed with a 17-1 record in the elimination round.  “But we still don’t know if we’re playing against them tomorrow (Friday).”

Well, they are.

Perpetual cemented its claim to the No. 4 seed after a probe that could have forfeited all its wins was shut down by a lack of quorum.

The NCAA board was set to convene on Thursday night to decide on the case, after the management committee presented its findings on Tuesday.

The case stemmed from two Perpetual Help players in Edgar Charcos and Kim Aurin, who played in a league outside the NCAA while serving residency—a move that did not have the approval of the league.

That would have made them ineligible this season.

With Charcos and Aurin playing all games of the Altas, Perpetual won 11 wins. A forfeiture would have pushed St. Benilde to No. 4.

A source told the Inquirer that based on the findings of the board, Perpetual may have been guilty of the violation, and the league might have turned a blind eye on the infraction.

The other playoff battle pits second seed Lyceum and Letran, which collide at 1:30 p.m.

The Pirates and Knights split their two games in the elimination round with Letran winning their most recent battle.