Why the change in sked?

ATENEO head coach Norman Black is not happy at all about the sudden change in schedule in the Final Four as his Blue Eagles will sit out a week before taking on the Adamson Falcons in the 73rd University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men’s basketball tournament.

The Blue Eagles, seeded second in the semifinals, take on the No. 3 Falcons on Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum. The top-seeded Far Eastern University (FEU) Tamaraws, on the other hand, square off with De La Salle, the season host, also at the Big Dome on Thursday. The Tamaraws and the Blue Eagles hold twice-to-beat advantages.

“I hate it. I don’t understand why we have it [split schedule],” said Black after his Blue Eagles dropped a heart-breaking 74-72 decision to FEU on Sunday to settle for the No. 2 spot in the semifinal stage.

“We’re going on with this set of schedule the entire [year] and all of a sudden we’re gonna take a week off at a time. It does not really make sense to me,” he added.

But Black said he has no control over the schedule—which is the prerogative of the UAAP and its broadcast partner, ABS-CBN.

“Anyway, I don’t run the UAAP and I just work in it. We’ll just have to follow the schedule and maybe they have other reasons. But we’d rather play on Thursday,” Black said.

The BusinessMirror gathered from sources that splitting the Final Four matches—the first time it will be done since the format was instituted in the league in 1994—would rake in more revenues from gate receipts and television commercials for both the UAAP and the coverer.

Black was disappointed over the way his Blue Eagles lost a six-point lead late in the final three-and-a-half minutes of the game that could have given them the No. 1 ranking and a showdown with the Green Archers.

“We certainly tried to win that game. We gave our best. But still, we need to win three games to win the championship and that’s still our goal,” said Black.

Ateneo needed to beat FEU by at least three points to snatch the top spot. But Ryan Buenafe and Emman Monfort muffed that chance in the game that went into overtime.

Black is not taking the Falcons lightly—although they have beaten Adamson twice this season.

“Both our games went down to the last seconds so I expect a very difficult game against them in the semifinals,” he said.

The Blue Eagles beat the Falcons in the first round, 69-66, and 55-52, in the second round.

Joel Orellana, Business Mirror