Rookies to boost Ateneo's 4-peat bid?

MANILA, Philippines – They don’t have the league MVP. And worse, not one from their team was named to the Mythical Five, yet the Ateneo Blue Eagles defied all the odds to capture their third straight title.

“I don’t want to insult my former players but this is by far the most gratifying championship for me, mainly because this is the most difficult. We weren’t the favorites going to the season but I think we had a good team at the start, I just had to develop them as the league went on. Luckily, they’ve been listening to me and really executed what had to be done,” said coach Norman Black moments after guiding Ateneo to a sweep of the fancied Far Eastern University (FEU) Tamaraws.

With the exodus of three vital cogs – Rabeh Al-Hussaini, Nonoy Baclao and Jai Reyes – last season, they came into the season not as the clear favorites unlike in the past.

It was FEU who was installed to win it all due to an intact line up.

Gone was the dominant team laden with go-to-guys in the past two championships. What was left was a bunch of guys, who stuck to each other and peaked at the right time.

“I give all credit to the player for really staying focused. What a lot of people probably didn’t realize was that we have a lot of guys with championship experience and then once we qualified for the twice-to-beat advantage [in the semifinals], we knew we could take our game to the next level.”



For one, the Finals MVP Ryan Buenafe, who carried them in the title-clincher, has played 6 straight Finals dating back to his junior stint in the NCAA with San Sebastian Staglets. Each of those years, including this one, he ended up winning a ring.

Then there were Emman Monfort, Kirk Long, Eric Salamat, Nico Salva, Bacon Austria and Justin Chua, who grew their games in the past 2 championship teams of Ateneo.

What they lacked in great individual talent, they made up with teamwork.

Only Salamat averaged in double figures with 11.3 per game in the elimination but 5 more Eagles have averaged 7.7 points or more.

They wound up with the No. 2 seed and lost both games – 72-69 and 74-72 – to top seed FEU in the eliminations. But those setbacks hardly discouraged them.

“In those two games [losses] against FEU, I really felt that if we could continue to get better, we have the chance to win the championship,” Black said.

Devoid of a bona fide scoring machine, the Eagles used Black’s trademark system.

“One major ingredient is defense. It’s what carried us for the last three years, particulary this year. We didn’t have a particular dominant offensive player this year and we have to rely a lot to our defense,” Black shared.

The Eagles ranked 7th in scoring with 71.1 points per game but they topped the league in defense, allowing their opponents to only 62.9 points per contest on just 34.5% shooting.

The Eagles’ defense was in full display in Game 1 where they limited the Tamaraws to their lowest output – 49 points – this season.

It was the kind of game that set the tone of the series and deflated the Tamaraws’ confidence.

Even though the Tamaraws started Game 2 aggressively and streaked to an early 9-point spread, Black remained confident his team would be able to come back.

“I thought they came out very physical which hurt them a little bit because it got them to foul trouble. I guess they had to do that to re-establish themselves in the series. And luckily for us, we took the blow and just hung in there and then got our chance to strike back,” Black said.

Buenafe led that comeback with 23 points, 10 coming off in the payoff period, scoring the Eagles’ 9 of last 11 points to clinch the title.

The dagger trey that he fired with the shot clock winding down in the final 22 seconds was the nail that sealed the Tamaraws’ coffin.



Moments after the win, championship shirts came out and were sold like hotcakes but one shirt encapsulated the Eagles’ ride to this championship.

2008 Destiny.

2009 Supremacy.

2010 Dynasty.

With only Salamat and center Jason Escueta leaving the team to graduation, a four-peat is not far-fetched.

“A good recruitment class is coming in next year and hopefully, we’ll be able to be here again [in the Finals] next year,” said Black, referring to 6-11 Greg Slaughter (who is already with the team) and possibly UAAP Juniors Finals MVP Kiefer Ravena to fill the spots to be left behind by Escueta and Salamat.

With an intact lineup and blue chip rookies coming in, the genius who made the 2010 Dynasty shirt copy might just change the “0” to “1.”

Alder Almo, ABS-CBN News