The Final Score: UAAP Cinderella tag still up for grabs

In a day or so, on the “For The Win" (FTW) webcast on GMANews.TV, you will watch Jason Webb, Eric Reyes and I say that the UAAP Final Four is, more or less, set. We proposed that FEU, Ateneo, Adamson and La Salle have secured the top 4 seeds. Toink! UE’s win over Ateneo last August 26 not only kept the Warriors’ Final Four bid intact, it also showed that people should a) take UE seriously and b) not take FTW hosts way too seriously.

While UE’s victory over the Blue Eagles was impressive but not totally unexpected, it could’ve started a mad chain of events that could turn the Final Four upside down. Although fans follow the race for the top two places, the scramble for the last ticket out of the Bermuda Triangle is often the most dramatic. And UE refuses to be written out of the script.

During one stretch in the first round, it appeared UE and UP would ultimately fight for seventh place by September. But as UP racked up more misfortune than 10 black cats could inflict, UE gained notoriety as the outsider who could gain access to the Grand Ball. The Fighting Maroons’ clock struck midnight even before the first dance. Adamson remains a crowd favorite especially after the Falcons walloped UP the way Roger Federer punishes a ball on an ace. But UE, hell-bent on winking their way past the crowd is poised to crash the party like only a true Cinderella can.

In a tournament where teams try to win by praying opponents make their last-second free throws, and referees basically telling these teams to take a hike, UE’s late surge shouldn’t come as a surprise. When you have Paul Lee, a player so gifted he sometimes looks like he has the enthusiasm of a fourth year high school student playing alongside fifth graders (think Willie Miller during an inconsequential elimination round game), and James Martinez, a cannonball three-point artist who spends the same amount of energy working on his shot and on his hair (think Ted Mosby on How I Met Your Mother), you’ll always have a chance.

As far as sentimental choices go, forget FEU and Ateneo. They lost the right to be called underdogs a long time ago. I’m looking at Adamson, La Salle (if the Green Archers can keep it together) and UE. Adamson has the goods (and athleticism not seen since the days of…hmmm…Eddie Laure?) to make it happen. La Salle has the go-go-go attitude to stay in the hunt. UE has the guts to defy reality.

Hence, I will let the head coaches break the tie. In which case, UE aptly wins by a hair. The Falcons will eat balut for breakfast if Leo Austria asks them to. Dindo Pumaren makes everyone play like “The Bullet". But a legit Cinderella needs the personality and perfectly conditioned-hair of Lawrence Chongson. Of all the teams, UE seems most ready to turn September into a real rockin’ party.

Mico Halili, GMA News TV